The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Cengage acquires Houghton Mifflin College

04.12.07 Tom Tivnan

Cengage Learning, formerly Thomson Learning, is acquiring Houghton Mifflin College, the Riverdeep-owned US higher education business, for $750m.

Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Partners, Cengage’s private equity owners, financed the deal with additional loans under Cengage’s existing credit agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Apax and OMERS bought Cengage from the Thomson Corporation for $7.75bn in July.

The deal comes just days after reports that Riverdeep’s plans to sell on $7.15bn in debt were shelved due to the ongoing credit crunch. The debt is from Riverdeep’s $4b acquisition of Harcourt, Reed Elsevier’s US education business, in July and its $4.95bn reverse takeover of Houghton Mifflin eight months earlier.

Ronald Dunn, president and c.e.o. of Cengage, said HM College was “highly complementary” to Cengage’s other assets. He added: “We look forward to combining the people, products and publishing programmes of HM College and Cengage Learning to expand and enhance our range of services for students, instructors and institutions in the higher education market.”

Under a long-term agreement that will begin at the close of the deal, Cengage and Houghton Mifflin will cooperate to expand the distribution of Cengage’s college textbooks and related materials into the US high school market.

The deal is expected close in the first half of 2008 following regulatory approval.

tom tivnan Houghton Mifflin Cengage