News that shocked me early this morning. It appears that Thomson is selling off its learning businesses. Not sure how it will affect U21G though at this point.
Heres the full reproduction of the Reuters report.
TORONTO - Electronic publisher Thomson said it would put the businesses in its education unit up for sale after deciding they no longer fit its strategy.
Thomson said it already has agreed to sell one of the businesses in the unit, NETg, to Skillsoft PLC for US$285 million (S$448 million). NETg provides continuing corporate education and training, Thomson said.
Two other sales of businesses in the Learning division will complete the divestiture, Thomson said.
It said it is already looking for buyers for its Prometric electronic testing business and expects that sale to be wrapped up sometime next year. The bidding for its higher education, careers and library reference assets is expected to start in 2007.
‘After the sale… the vast majority of our sales will come from electronic products and services with recurring revenues that are currently growing at high rate,’ Thomson chief executive Richard Harrington said in a statement late on Wednesday.
He added the sales will give the company ’substantial resources’ to speed up the development of its core businesses and explore related markets.
The sale of the businesses in the Thomson Learning division, which provides course software, specialised content, and learning services for businesses, schools and government agencies, could fetch more than US$5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Thomson Learning unit also has online reference databases, distance learning and test preparation courses. It represents about 26 per cent of Thomson’s overall revenues and 23 per cent of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). — REUTERS
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When you start feeling like its “book-in blues” (A borrowed description from the army indicating a feeling of perenial fear at the thought of checking back into camp on Sunday afternoon) just before a flight, you know that despite a two month hiatus from flying, I haven’t quite gotten over the distaste of flying. Lord….the very thought of airplane food turns me off!
I’m heading to Makati City, Manila for a couple of days. Ta ta…
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Kyla just came up to me a couple of minutes ago and asked….”Daddy, Daddy, do you know what stars are made of?” Wanting to hear what she had to say, I said “No, i don’t, Honey. What are stars made of?”
“Stars are made of gases, mainly Hydrogen and Helium”…….
I was stumped! I took a while to collect my jaws, praised her, and made my way to wikipedia to read about Stars. It seems like Kyla is right. Stars indeed begin their life as a collapsing cloud of Hydrogen and Helium!
My god….she’s just coming to 5 years old, and already spouting element names. When I was five, my only vocab were marbles and I hated girls. It’s incredible what they’re learning in school.
One More Night!!!!!!!!!! Wooo Hoooo!!!!! Chris is coming back tomorrow evening, and I’m sooooooo looking forward to it!
I know I’ve indicated that the kids were driving me nuts, but they’ve been really sweet over the last few days. Yeah, fights still occur, but not so much. Kyla in particular, has been exceptionally well behaved. She’s really the big sister now.
I just started playing this Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) called Maple Story. I know, I know…. Chris is away, the kids are drivin me nuts, this is my way of release. But hey, at least I’m not doing drugs. I know of someone who just got hit by Chronic Renal Failure due to the use of drugs….but thats for another post.
Anyways, Maple Story is awesome! This has to be the coolest game after Mordor (according to me of course). I’m spending like 2 to 3 hours every night playing this. Ha ha ha…. I know. I haven’t touched games for like years!!!, and suddenly I’m like a teenager again!
How did all this come about? Well…. uh… my nephew in JB introduced me to it. Apparently, according to his parents, he met a young 28 year old female lawyer through the game, and she didn’t believe he was just 12 years old! I mean… if he can do this, I wonder who I will net! ha ha ha ha…..
Damn it! (Sorry for starting a post with a curse word. I’m repenting now)
I woke up this morning wanting to bring my Casio camera to the office, only to find out that the LCD screen was broken!!!! Damn it! (sorry again)
I brought the camera with me to the office anyway, so that I could call Casio to get it repaired, if it wouldn’t cost too much. If it is too expensive, it would make more sense to buy a new camera.
Made a call to Casio Singapore, and found out that they were just 21 floors below my office! I made my way to the service centre in 5 minutes, and my camera was ready for collection at 5pm today at a repair cost of only S$120.
We’re finally going in to Johore Bahru to visit my fifth Aunt with dad and mum and the whole family. The last time we were in JB was back in February during Chinese New Year.
I remember that dad had a minor attack during that trip while we were walking Along a stretch of shops in Taman Sentosa. That was before I was concerned enough to stop our visits to fifth Aunt, and to get him to Hospital for further checks.
It’s been 8 months since, and dad is ready again to make the trip. He and mum are very happy that we can resume our visits to fifth Aunt.
The kids are also excited, Elkan in particular, as he is now alot older, and his conscience thought is more aparent now.
But, as we approach the causeway, I remembered just how bad traffic can be. we’ve been waiting on the singapore end for close to 30 minutes now. Anyways, I think its going to an enjoyable trip.
I got Amex to make a reservation at New Hong Kong Restaurant for lunch. I think it’s going to be a riot.
But hey, at least I’m not doing drugs. I know of 