The long awaited and much talked about sale of Thompson’s educational business has been concluded. Apax Partners, a private equity group, and an Ontario-based pension fund, will buy Thomson Learning and textbook provider Nelson Canada.
The sale price of $7.75bn sailed past analysts' forecasts and will give Thomson a large cash boost to help fund its purchase British news agency Reuters, which could cost $17.5bn in cash and shares.
The sale is part of Thomson's strategy to offload its higher education and library reference material division, announced last October. It follows hot on the heels of the sale of Harcourt to Pearson and clearly demonstrates that the publishing giants, Reed Elsevier, Thompson and Pearson are now focusing on their markets and growth. In doing so they will continue in their migration from publisher to content workflow providers and embed themselves deeper into their market’s eco systems.
