Thomson to close book on education

LONDON - Canada's Thomson media giant looks set to announce that its education business has been put up for sale, with a price tag of £3 billion ($8.6 billion).

The move would continue a shake-up of the educational publishing business, in which London-listed Pearson and Reed Elsevier are big players.

Houghton Mifflin, the fourth-largest US educational publisher, is reportedly to be sold to Irish group Riverdeep, in a US$3.5 billion ($5.33 billion) deal. And Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch publisher, is reviewing its education business, estimated to be worth some £420 million ($1.2 billion).

It is thought that Thomson would divest education to concentrate on its other publishing interests in financial, legal and scientific sectors. Thomson's education division, which had revenues of $US2.3 billion ($3.5 billion) last year, represents a quarter of the company but is growing more slowly than its other businesses. This "Learning" division is also not so easily converted into an electronic delivery business.

Lauren Rich Fine, of Merrill Lynch in New York, said: "TOC [Thomson] is a must-have information company that has rapidly embraced technology as both a way to offer workflow solutions and improve the economics of its businesses. The Learning division in this context has proven challenging."

Thomson's Learning division is in the higher-education end of the sector, where Pearson is the market leader. Pearson's market share in US higher education publishing, of 36 per cent, compares with Thomson's 25 per cent. Pearson may be interested in Wolters Kluwer.

- INDEPENDENT