The sale of Harcourt Education is “on track” and expected to be completed in late 2007 or early 2008, parent company Reed Elsevier said in a brief trading update issued this morning. Reed is selling Harcourt, including its school, supplementary and trade divisions, to Houghton Mifflin for $4 billion. There has some speculation that the tighter credit market could delay the purchase, but Reed CEO Crispin Davis said the sale “is on track and moves us closer to our goal of Reed Elsevier becoming a more cohesive and synergistic business.”
According to Reed, Harcourt’s basal business has done well in the U.S., driven by gains in adoptions of secondary school texts. Results in the assessment group have improved. In its business information sector (home of PW and BEA), Reed cited improvements in the exhibition business and overall solid growth in its magazines and information units as rapid gains in online sales offset declines in print.
