According to the U.S.-based news service PR Newswire, the Canadian educational publisher Thomson Nelson has been purchased by two major financial investment companies – Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Partners – as part of a larger acquisition of Thomson Learning. Apax is a U.S.-based private equity firm, while OMERS is one of Canada’s largest pension plan providers; it is the latter firm that will be taking on majority ownership of Thomson Nelson, presumably in order to satisfy Canadian ownership rules.
On May 11, 2007, funds advised by Apax Partners announced the signing of definitive agreements with The Thomson Corporation, under which such funds, together with funds advised by OMERS Capital Partners, will acquire the higher education, career learning and library reference assets of Thomson Learning and Nelson Canada for a combined total value of approximately $7.75 billion in cash.
Though the transaction appears to be a done deal, the sale will not be officially completed until the third quarter of this year, following regulatory approvals.
Company officials did not return calls on Tuesday, but watch for future updates in Q&Q Omni.
I think your report is mixing up “Thomas Nelson”, the Christian book publisher, with “Thomson Learning”, the educational textbook publisher.
Oops. Or not. I didn’t realize there was a “Thomson Nelson” division. You are right; my mistake.
Actually, Thomson Nelson was the Canadian arm of Thomson Learning – so she is correct both ways! OMERS is the major partner of APAX/OMERS for the CDN Thomson Nelson purchase, and APAX is the major partner for the Thomson Learning part of the acquisition. It has to do with Nelson being a CDN Cultural Identity so the new owners had to be primarily CDN as well (as OMERS is).
And yes, “Thomas Nelson” is the Christian book publisher. “Thomson Nelson” is the CDN textbook publisher.