$4B Deal Shakes Up Educational Publishing

Educational-publishing giant Houghton Mifflin grew even bigger today, agreeing to acquire three of Reed Elsevier's divisions for $4 billion. Boston-based Houghton will pay $3.7 billion in cash and the remainder in stock of its parent company for the Harcourt Education, Harcourt Trade, and Greenwood-Heinemann imprints, Reuters reports, leaving the sector largely in the hands of Houghton, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill.

In April, Pearson snapped up two other Harcourt units from Reed Elsevier, which today finished unloading its educational units and will concentrate on legal and science publishing. Houghton CEO Tony Lucki, former head of Harcourt Education, will lead the combined company. Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to go through late this year or in early 2008. (More McGraw-Hill stories.)