The Globe and Mail (Toronto) is naming the names of those who are bidding for Thomson Learning. No real surprises and it would appear that the only operator that may emerge as a potential party to an acquisition is Bertelsmann. The only reason for that would be the announcement last week of Bertelsmann's establishment of a private equity fund. Perhaps if that announcement had not been made this list would be exclusively PE. Those named in the article are Bain, Thomas Lee, Blackstone, Warburg and Apax. Pretty much the top of the pile.
According to the article the dd meetings are underway and a deal is expected in the next two months. It seems likely that the Reed/Harcourt divestiture timetable may be set back into the third quarter due to this activity. Now that the WK education deal is done activity and attention will move to Thomson so look for more articles.
Globe & Mail
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