Viacom to Sell Educational, Professional and Reference Publishing Operations

Posted on January 15, 1998

Viacom Inc. announced that, as part of a strategic program to focus on its core entertainment assets, deliver maximum value to its shareholders and strengthen its capital structure, the Company will sell its educational, professional and reference publishing operations. Viacom will retain its consumer operations, which publish more than 2,100 titles annually under 34 well-known trade, mass market, children's and new media imprints.

Viacom has retained the investment banking firm of Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated to assist in the evaluation of assets, the identification of qualified buyers, the evaluation of proposals and the completion of a sale process that will secure a maximum return for Viacom's shareholders. Viacom said that it expects to announce the result of the sale process in the second quarter of 1998. Proceeds from the transaction will be used to repay debt.

Viacom's educational, professional and reference publishing businesses, which are part of Viacom's Simon & Schuster unit, comprise the world's largest educational and computer book publishers. The businesses include operations in 43 countries and leading elementary, high school and higher education imprints such as Allyn & Bacon, Prentice Hall, Silver Burdett Ginn, Globe Fearon and Modern Curriculum; pioneer technology-based learning companies such as Computer Curriculum Corporation, Educational Management Group and Invest Learning; major names in reference and business and professional publishing, including Macmillan, Que, Bureau of Business Practice, Jossey-Bass, Prentice Hall Direct, New York Institute of Finance and Appleton & Lange; and international publishing operations, including Simon & Schuster Asia, Simon & Schuster Latin America, Simon & Schuster Australia and Simon & Schuster Europe.



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