Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

McGraw-Hill sells its education business

The deal could significantly affect the education market, analysts said.

Update: In an earlier version of this story, we erroneously reported that McGraw-Hill’s education business was being purchased by Apollo Global, which owns the for-profit University of Phoenix. McGraw-Hill’s education business is actually being purchased by Apollo Global Management, an unrelated firm. We regret the error.

In a surprise $2.5 billion cash and debt deal expected to be final by the early part of 2013, a private equity firm will purchase McGraw-Hill Education’s digital and traditional textbook business.

After Apollo Global Management completes the deal, McGraw-Hill will be renamed McGraw Hill Financial and will focus solely on its major brands such as J.D. Power and Associates, Standard & Poor’s, and S&P Capital IQ. McGraw-Hill representatives say the company is confident that this refocus will prove profitable for the company’s shareholders.…Read More

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Apollo Group to acquire Carnegie Learning for $75M

Carnegie Learning will operate as a subsidiary of Apollo Group, whose holdings include the online University of Phoenix.

Apollo Group Inc., the nation’s largest for-profit college chain and owner of the online University of Phoenix, said Aug. 2 that it has agreed to acquire Carnegie Learning Inc., a publisher of research-based math curricula, for $75 million.

In a separate transaction, Apollo said it will acquire related technology from Carnegie Mellon University for $21.5 million, payable over a 10-year period.

The acquisitions allow Apollo to accelerate its efforts to incorporate adaptive learning into its academic platform and to provide tools to help raise student achievement in mathematics, which supports improved retention and graduation rates, the company said.…Read More