Houghton Mifflin Company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Harcourt Education, Harcourt Trade and Greenwood-Heinemann divisions ("Harcourt") of Reed Elsevier.The combination of Houghton Mifflin's and Harcourt's elementary, secondary and supplemental businesses creates a provider that will offer customers more choices in educational publishing. The new entity will be well-positioned to make the investments required to deliver to teachers and administrators a more comprehensive and flexible set of K–12 learning solutions than is available today. The addition of Harcourt Trade to Houghton Mifflin's rich library of literature and reference titles will create a preeminent publisher with one of the industry’s most distinguished lists of authors.
Houghton Mifflin will acquire the Harcourt businesses in a transaction valued at $4 billion, consisting of $3.7 billion in cash and $300 million in common stock of Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group PLC (Houghton Mifflin’s parent company). The combined business will be led by Tony Lucki, Chairman, President and CEO of Houghton Mifflin, and former CEO of Harcourt Education and Harcourt, Inc.
