Purchase of Harcourt General clears hurdle

BROOKLINE — U.S. antitrust investigators have approved the planned purchase
by Thompson Corp. of Harcourt General. Inc.’s college textbook business. This,
along with the previous approval of Reed Elsevier PLC’s purchase of Harcourt advances
the combined efforts of the two companies to purchase the Massachusetts publishing
house. In turn the Justice Department has approved Reed Elsevier’s sale of Harcourt’s
higher education and corporate and professional service group to Thompson for
about $2.06 billion. Bloomberg News said the Justice Department will require Thompson
and Harcourt to sell publishing rights to numerous college textbooks and a testing
unit. The transaction is still subject to antitrust review in the United Kingdom.