Now that no one else seems to want its stock since reducing forecasts for the year when reporting quarterly earnings a week ago, Barnes & Noble Education announced that the board has authorized stock repurchases of up to $50 million worth of shares. That has given the company’s shares a small boost in price this morning, though BNED still trades below $9 a share — down over 40 percent from its recent peak on November 27. With a current market capitalization of only about $425 million, that repurchase authority covers a meaningful portion of shares outstanding.
Education
Bertlesmann Confirms $230 Million Investment in HotChalk
As anticipated since September, Bertelsmann is spending $230 million to buy a minority stake in HotChalk, a technology company that powers online degree programs. Along with last month’s RediLearning deal, their stake in Alliant University and the big deal about a year ago for Relias Learning, Bertelsmann has spent in the neighborhood of $1 billion for US-based education and edtech companies over the past year.
Corporate: Bertelsmann Buys RediLearning; Harper Buys The Midlist; and More
Bertelsmann subsidiary Relias Learning has acquired Florida-based e-learning company RediLearning. Terms of the deal, the first under the Bertelsmann Education Group umbrella, were not disclosed — though a Reuters source puts it at a “medium double-digit million US dollar sum.” The nine-year-old RediLearning provides online training in the field of senior care, primarily through 400 online courses. Bertelsmann ceo and chairman Thomas Rabe said in the announcement: “The acquisition of RediLearning fits perfectly into our education strategy. E-Learning is a strategic segment for Bertelsmann as we develop our education business. Relias is a core investment, and we will continue to develop […]
Macmillan to Combine Educational Units
Further reorganizing what remains of their fully-owned educational companies after the big merger of Macmillan Science and Education with Springer earlier this year, Macmillan is taking the logical step of bringing together Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillan New Ventures into a single unit as of January 1. The combined entity will be called Macmillan Learning going forward, still under the direction of ceo Ken Michaels (who is currently ceo of the two separate units). Macmillan Higher Education comprises the US publishing lines Bedford/St. Martin’s, W.H. Freeman, and Worth Publishers; Macmillan New Ventures has been their ed-tech investment arm, and comprises start-ups including Hayden-McNeil, Sapling Learning, Late […]
Bertelsmann Formalizes Education Division
Not surprisingly, following the big $540 million acquisition of Relias Learning last year and a number of substantial investments in the field, Bertelsmann has set up the Bertelsmann Education Group as its own business unit. Kay Krafft, who has managed Bertelsmann’s education enterprises since 2014, is ceo of the new group, and Jarek Gabor is cfo. Headquartered in New York, BEG will be managed by Bertelsmann’s Corporate Investments division. Bertelsmann ceo Thomas Rabe said in the announcement (as he has before), “Education is one of Bertelsmann’s key growth platforms, and we want to expand this segment into our third mainstay of business, alongside media […]
Corporate: McGraw-Hill Education Files for IPO; Meredith Sold to Media General
As indicated recently by Reuters, McGraw-Hill Education did indeed file preliminary paperwork with the SEC last week to launch an IPO, probably before the end of the year. For filing purposes they use a placeholder value of $100 million, though the actual offering is expected to look to raise up to five times that amount in actual proceeds. For the first six months of 2015 MHE had sales of $670 million, with a net loss of -$256 million. In 2014, the company had sales of $1.856 billion and a loss of -$331 million. As of June 30, the company carried […]