Messier: Vivendi mess their fault

PARIS, November 14, 2002 -- In a forthcoming book, Vivendi Universal's former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier vilifies retired French insurance executive Claude Bébéar for undoing Messier's vision for Vivendi to become a globally dominant media company, according to the newspaper Le Monde. The newspaper, citing an advance copy, said Messier claims in the book that Bébéar was motivated by an intense desire to avoid diluting Vivendi's base in French culture. Bébéar acted "to keep busy in his retirement and out of a fierce desire to come across as the godfather of French capitalism," Messier says, according to the Le Monde report. In the maneuvering that led to Messier's ouster, Vivendi board member Henri Lachmann was Bébéar's "little messenger, " the account says. The book, Mon Vrai Journal (My True Diary), due out Friday, includes Six Mistakes that Messier acknowledges, including waiting too long to split off Vivendi's historic water business Vivendi Environment.Messier's list doesn't include his rapid expansion through debt-acquired acquisitions that led the company to the verge of bankruptcy and now had led to its dismemberment.

MESSIER EARLIER ARTICLE Houghton buyers likely paid 1.5x earnings

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High Court to review web library screening

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Tech honor to Harvard publishing unit

California OKs Pearson teacher training product

SACRAMENTO, California, November 10, 2002 -- The California Department of Education approved Pearson Professional Development's professional development program for literature and language arts. The program ties curriculum to state standards. The state has $31 million to school duistricts for professional development in reading, language arts and math this school year. The Pearson program links state standards Prentice Hall's Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes literature and language arts program, which Pearson says has been adopted by nearly half of all adopting middle schools in California.

Houghton buyers likely paid 1.5x earnings

DARIEN, Massachusetts, November 9, 2002 -- The price that the Lee-Bain partnership paid for Houghton Mifflin represented a sales multiple of 1.5, "a decent though not a great buy," according to calculations by the book industry newsletter Subtext. Even so, the sales multiple was less than other recent mega-deals in educational publishing. Subtext acknowledged some guesswork in its calculation, noting that Houghton's owner, Vivendi of France, lumped Houghton's 2001 income with some of the company's other operating units rather than giving clean breakouts. Also, the newsletter noted the difficulty in factoring the damage incurred in Vivendi's turmoil in recent months to assess whether it was a good deal by Lee-Bain. Here is Subtext's calculations on multiples in educational publishing deals in recent years: Transaction Sales Multiple 1998 Pearson buys Simon & Schuster units 2.4x 2001 Reed Elsevier buys Harcourt 2.3x 2001 Thomson buys Harcourt College 2.8x 2001 Vivendi buys Houghton Mifflin 2.1x 2002 Lee-Bain buys Houghton Mifflin 1.5x

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN EARLIER ARTICLE Houghton buyers: Now there are two

Charles Bazerman, (English), University of California, Santa Barbara, and Harvey S. Wiener (English), Marymount Manhattan College, wrote the fifth edition of Writing Skills Handbook (Houghton Mifflin). David Hughes (computer science), Brock University, wrote Fundamentals of Computer Science Using Java (Jones and Bartlett). A. J. Turgeon (agriculture), Pennsylvania State University, wrote the sixth edition of Turfgrass Management (Prentice Hall).

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Stanford cuts lead to axing editor

PALO ALTO, California, November 8, 2002 -- In a continuing cutback in its historically strong humanities presence, Stanford University Press fired humanities editor Helen Tartar. Geoffrey Burn, Press director, said the decision was difficult: "The last thing in the world we wanted to do was to let anybody go," Burn said, but noted that two top editors were no longer needed because the Stanford list has been undergoing a financially driven trimming. About 10 percent fewer titles are being issued, he said. Tartar's duties are being absorbed by history editor Norris Pope, Burn said.

Houghton buyers: Now there are two

PARIS, November 7, 2002 -- The sale of Boston-based textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin to an equity investment consortium, first announced October 31, was confirmed by Vivendi Universal, but, as throughout the tortured sale process, the deal was not quite what was first reported. The buyers are two Boston firms: Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, each with a 50-50 interest. A third and fourth member of the consortium at the start of bidding for Vivendi publishing assets withdrew late in the proccess. As announced October 31, he final price was almost US$1.7 billion, Vivendi said in confirming details of the sale. It is possible that the other consortium members in early bidding, the Blackstone Group of New York and Apax Partners of London, may still buy into Houghton Mifflin, but their stakes would be small, a source said. Even though equity firms usually begin looking for buyers soon after an acqusition, Scott Sperling, managing director of Lee Partners, told the Boston Globe that Lee and Bain intend to keep Houghton in Boston and grow the company before cashing out.

EARLIER ARTICLE Consensus: Houghton will be dissected

Journals to lobby authors, libraries

2002 college sales up 10.9% so far

WASHINGTON, November 7, 2002 -- Through the end of September, 2002 college textbook sales were running 10.9 percent ahead of year earlier, according to the latest report from the Association of American Publishers. September college sales totaled $211.6 million,. 9.5 percent ahead of the same month in 2001. Here are the year-to-date AAP data through September, extrapolated from 74 member-publishers, for genres in which academic authors write: University press (soft) College STM, professional El-hi University press (soft) 12.6 percent 10.9 percent 7.9 percent -6.0 percent -14.8 percent

EARLIER DATA

Second probe launched against Vivendi

PARIS, November 5, 2002 -- The Paris public prosecutor launched its own investigation of French conglomerate Vivendi to determine whether legally required financial disclosures under former chair Jean-Marie Messier were sufficiently complete and accurate. At the time Vivendi's assets included U.S. publishing house Houghton Mifflin, although the sale of Houghton is in progress under Messier's successors. Messier has been accused by dissident shareholders of misleading them about indebtedness and other essential company affairs. The new inquiry is in addition to one begun in July by the Commission des Opérations de Bourse that monitors publicly traded stocks on the major Ffrench exchange. Messier didn't respond to news media inquiries.

EARLIER ARTICLE Investor group buys Houghton Mifflin

Wiley takes on ob/gyn journal

CHICHESTER, United Kingdom, November 4, 2002 -- The International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology accepted a bid fromJohn Wiley &aamp; Sons to produce the peer-reviewed journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the end of the year. Blackwell currently has the contact. Sarah Johnson, the society's executive director, said: "The speed of publication through Wiley InterScience's EarlyView service, which provides fully citable articles online in advance of a compiled print edition, meets this vital requirement." Also, Johnson said, Wiley InterScience will offer detailed user statistics that "give us a better understanding of our readers."

ULTRA- SOUND JOURNAL WILEY

Larry Beason (English), University of South Alabama, and Mark Lester (English), Eastern Washington University, wrote the third edition of A Commonsense Guide to Grammar and Usage (Bedford / St. Martin's). William Lawhead (philosophy), University of Mississippi, wrote the second edition of The Philosophical Journey: An Interactive Approach with Free Philosophy (McGraw-Hill). Ann Moseley, (education), Texas A&M University, Commerce, and Jeanette Harris (education), Texas Christian University, wrote the fifth edition of Interactions: A Thematic Reader (Houghton Mifflin).

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McGraw names higher-ed president

NEW YORK, November 3, 2002 -- Publishing industry veteran Henry Hirschberg, 59, was appointed president of McGraw-Hill Education. Hirschberg succeeds Robert Evanson, 66, who retires in March. Since 1999 Hirschberg has been group president of the McGraw's Higher Education, Professional and International Publishing Division. In that position, the divison achieved consistent double-digit revenue and profit growth, and continuously outperformed competitors, said McGraw chief executive Harold McGraw in announcing the appointment.. "He has also led successful efforts to integrate technology across our product mix and to expand our education franchise globally," McGraw said. Before joining McGraw, Hirschberg was president of Pearson Higher Ed. Earlier he held various at Simon & Schuster, including president of its International Publishing Group. Hirschberg began his career in 1972 as a sales rep at Prentice Hall in Europe.

R.I.P.: Chandler Grannis

Consensus: Houghton will be dissected

BOSTON, Massachusetts, November 2, 2002 -- Among experts there is no doubt that the new owners of Houghton Mifflin will break up the company and sell the pieces. The former chief executive of Simon & Schuster, Jonathan Newcomb, sees strong demand for the profitable education divisions, which produce textbooks. But the consensus among analysts is that deals must be arranged carefully because the most likely acquirers, like Pearson, Thomson and McGraw-Hill will face anti-trust hurdles from the government. The best bets, right now, are that Houghton's trade book operation will be sold first. It's not as profitable as the other divisions and would be less subject to scrutiny from government regulatory agencies. Is there a possibility that the company would be sold as a single unit? Said Constance Sayre, with the publishing industry consultants Market Partners International: "The sum of its parts is worth more than the whole thing."

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN EARLIER ARTICLE Investor group buys Houghton Mifflin

SA2 site carried 135 October items

Stacey L. Edgar (ethics), State University of New York, Genesco, wrote the second edition of Morality and Machines: Perspectives on Computer Ethics (Jones and Bartlett). Robert F. Norris (agriculture), University of California, Davis, Edward P. Caswell-Chen (agriculture), University of California, Davis, and Marcos Kogan (agricuture), Oregon State University, wrote Concepts in Integrated Pest Management (Prentice Hall). Nina Rosenstand (philosophy), San Diego Mesa College, wrote The Human Condition: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Nature (McGraw-Hill).

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