School Specialty Inc. paid $45.7 million for the children's book publishing assets that it acquired from McGraw-Hill at the end of January, the company reported in its quarterly filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Annual sales for the group range from $60 million to $65 million.
Total revenue for School Specialty in the third quarter ended January 24 fell 3.6%, to $106.6 million, and the net loss increased to $10.1 million from $8.5 million. For the nine months, sales were up 2.8%, to $746.1 million, and net income rose to $46.9 million from $44.4 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2003. The company said the sales gain in the nine-month period was due to acquisitions as well as modest growth in its specialty business segment.
