Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Carlyle Group are joining a list of suitors seeking to pair with the higher education publishing arm of education and information provider Thomson Corp.

The two firms are competing separately against Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus and a consortium of Blackstone, Thomas H. Lee and Bain, all of which owned educational publisher Houghton Mifflin, before selling last year. Bids are expected to come in at around $3.5 billion, and would set a benchmark for the sale of Reed Elsevier's educational division.

Thomson is two-thirds owned by the Canadian Thomson family, which wants to sell the business to focus on its financial, legal and science and health-care divisions for professionals rather than the competitive education market. Final bids are due in the middle of next month.

The higher educational unit the largest part of Thomson Learning, which is up for sale in various parts, is worth a total of $5 billion.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Carlyle Group are among a group of five or six bidders chasing Thomson’s higher education publishing arm, in a deal that will set a benchmark for the sale of Reed Elsevier’s educational division.

The two firms are competing separately against Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus and a consortium of Blackstone, Thomas H. Lee and Bain, all of which owned Houghton Mifflin, the educational publisher, before selling last year. It is thought that bids for Thomson Learning could come in at around $3.5 billion (£1.74 billion).

(Continue reading this story on Times Online)

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