U.S. textbook publisher sold

Friday, Oct. 27, 2000 | 11:03 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Reed Elsevier, a leading publisher of textbooks and medical books, is buying Harcourt General, a U.S. schoolbook publisher, for about $4.45 billion.

The Anglo-Dutch company said today it planned to sell Harcourt's higher education publishing operations and some corporate and professional services to Canada's Thomson Corp. for $1.2 billion.

That will leave Reed Elsevier with Harcourt's scientific, technical and medical businesses as well as its school education publishing operations.

It is paying $59 per share, or about $4.45 billion, for Harcourt, based in Newton, Mass. In addition, it is assuming $1.2 billion in debt in the deal which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2001 pending regulatory approval.

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