Eoin Purcell
Talk about Doubling Down
This really is a remarkable move by Riverdeep & Houghton Mifflin (now one and the same since Riverdeep acquired Houghton Mifflin late last year): Publishers Weekly, Reuters/Yahoo News, Bloomberg and a bit of blog reaction from Martyn Daniels.
From the HoughtonMifflin’s own press release:
The combination of Houghton Mifflin’s and Harcourt’s elementary, secondary and supplemental businesses creates a provider that will offer customers more choices in educational publishing. The new entity will be well-positioned to make the investments required to deliver to teachers and administrators a more comprehensive and flexible set of K–12 learning solutions than is available today. The addition of Harcourt Trade to Houghton Mifflin’s rich library of literature and reference titles will create a preeminent publisher with one of the industry’s most distinguished lists of authors.
Despite the noise they are making about the trade list, I cannot help but feel that the real goal is to lock in as much educational content as Riverdeep can and to begin the process of moving education online as we have mentioned here before. It is really an exciting time in educational publishing. I think we may be seeing the growth of an online education giant.
Seeing the shape emerging or is that just the fog?
Eoin
Eoin Purcell's Blog 
I don’t think Riverdeep is a serious publisher. Look at their record, all they do is acquire companies and products to show growth. Very little has ever been real product made by this company. They are simply a hold over from the dot.com business model. When times get tough and there is a downturn again, look for these guys to evaporate, not revolutionize education.