Granada Learning – is the end in sight?
Will this saga ever end – I’m sure ITV hopes so?! As we predicted it seems that the only horse in this race is Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) and the only hurdle is the bottom line - how much is the company worth? Some pundits say the price could be as low as £40m, quite a drop from the original £80m+ asking price in mid-2005. VSS have also announced in the US that they are winding down their advisory business to focus on more profitable leveraged buyouts, like the purchase of Granada Learning.
It may be that VSS’s plan is to combine Granada, or elements of it, with Sherston, the UK-based publishing company in which it has a significant investment. Sherston, who were awarded the Education Resource Awards’ title of Educational Supplier of the Year 2004-5, have strategic partnerships with Oxford University Press, BBC Worldwide and LDA (a subsidiary of Findel).
When and if a sale does occur it will be interesting to see whether it has any implications for Granada’s partners like India’s Tata Interactive Systems who developed Simulation Explorer which won the BETT 2006 Primary Science prize.