Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology, originally started as Riverdeep Interactive Learning, is a publishing house for educational online and

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

products based in San Francisco, Boston and

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

. Founded in 1995, Riverdeep was principally the creation of the Irish ex-investment banker Barry O'Callaghan. O'Callaghan was Riverdeep's CEO and controlling shareholder. Riverdeep also acquired the companies Broderbund, The Learning Company and

Edmark Edmark Corporation (or simply Edmark) was a publisher of educational print materials and an educational software developer in Redmond, Washington. They developed software for Microsoft Windows and MacOS in several languages and sold it in over a d ...

, and became a distributor for said companies.

History

In October 2002, Riverdeep became a private entity when their stock price plummeted below $2 in NASDAQ.RTÉ Business: Riverdeep to de-list from Nasdaq
/ref> On September 20, 2004, Riverdeep moved its Novato office to 100 Pine Street in San Francisco. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt officially became a publicly traded company on November 14, 2013, with common shares of stock listed on the NASDAQ exchange.Textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt prices IPO at $12 a share
/ref> As of 2017,

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

is offering the Adventure Workshop brand (originally used for titles published by or acquired by Riverdeep) as a licensing opportunity on its website.

Houghton Mifflin

On December 22, 2006, HM Rivergroup PLC announced the completed acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Holding Company, Inc. and Riverdeep Holdings, Limited. Following the completion of transactions, HM Rivergroup PLC would change its name to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group PLC. Riverdeep paid 1.75 billion in cash and assumed $1.61 billion in debt from the private investment firms Thomas H. Lee Partners,

Bain Capital Partners Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

and The Blackstone Group.Houghton Mifflin acquisition
Irish company completes Houghton Mifflin acquisition - Boston.com
/ref> Tony Lucki, a former non-executive director of Riverdeep, would remain in his position as Houghton Mifflin's chief executive officer. HM Rivergroup indicated it wanted to capitalize on the "convergence of print and digital education platforms."

Reed Elsevier

In July 2007, Reed Elsevier (an information and publishing group) offloaded Harcourt US Schools Education business to Houghton Mifflin, Inc. for $4.0 billion, with $3.7 billion payable in cash and $0.3 billion payable in common stock of Houghton Mifflin, Inc.Reed Elsevier - Reed Elsevier announces sale of Harcourt US Schools Education Business to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group for $4.0 billion
/ref> Houghton Mifflin was privately held. Existing investors put up $23 million of equity financing to help to meet the $3.7 billion cash requirement for the purchase. Reed took a $300 million stake in Houghton Mifflin, Inc., which left it with 11.8 per cent of the common stock in the enlarged company.Houghton Mifflin to buy Harcourt - Boston.com
The combined business became known as

(HMH), and a new holding company, EMPG, was created. The Riverdeep name is no longer used by HMH.

References

External links

Riverdeep Interactive Learning LimitedThe Riverside Publishing CompanyHoughton Mifflin Inc.
{{Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt CD-ROM publishing companies Online publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies of Ireland Publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1995 Companies based in Boston Companies based in Dublin (city) 2006 mergers and acquisitions