[May 19, 2014] |
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Strengthens Early Childhood Education Offering with Acquisition of Curiosityville
BOSTON --(Business Wire)--
Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has acquired
Curiosityville - an online personalized learning environment that helps
children ages 3-8 learn through playful exploration and discovery. The
acquisition will be a core element of HMH's early childhood education
offering, which represents a significant growth area for the Company.
Using lovable characters, games and activities, Curiosityville bridges a
connection between parents, students and educators, and lays a strong
foundation for core learning areas such as creative expression, problem
solving, collaboration, and other critical cognitive and academic skills
for school and for life. The acquisition of Curiosityville also includes
its proprietary data collection and analytics engine, the Learning Tree,
which provides real-time information on individual learners and
personalized recommendations for learning, both online and offline.
"Curiosityville fits perfectly with our mission and commitment to
cultivating curiosity and a passion for learning in young children,"
said Linda Zecher, President and CEO of HMH. "We place enormous value in
the impact of early childhood education, both at home and in pre-school
settings, and believe that the incorporation of Curiosityville into our
own robust offering for young learners will enable us to deliver a
unique, engaging, research-based solution to parents and educators
alike."
Founded by award-winning writer and creator of hands-on learning
resources Susan Magsamen, Curiosityville is built upon evidence-based
research around child development and critical learning periods, an
understanding of the best ways to teach critical skills, and the role of
parent engagement. Fueled by brain science research, every aspect of
Curiosityville-from the activity and game development to the sound
effects, animation, and archetypal characters-is built for optimal child
development and learning.
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"Curiosityville was created to bring together a collaborative and
interactive community of families, educators and experts in the field of
early learning," added Susan Magsamen, Founder and CEO of
Curiosityville. "With HMH, we have the opportunity to extend the reach
of Curiosityville even further."
Parchman, Vaughan & Company LLC advised management and the board of
Curiosityville with regards to this transaction.
About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company with the mission of changing
people's lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. Among the
world's largest providers of pre-K-12 education solutions and one of its
longest-established publishing houses, HMH combines cutting-edge
research, editorial excellence and technological innovation to improve
teaching and learning environments and solve complex literacy and
education challenges. HMH's interactive, results-driven education
solutions are utilized by more than 50 million students in over 150
countries, and its renowned and awarded novels, non-fiction, children's
books and reference works are enjoyed by readers throughout the world.
For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.
About Curiosityville Curiosityville is a personalized
learning world for young children, families and educators, combining
playful activities, lovable characters, and innovative technology that
adapts content and gives parents real-time feedback as children builds
essential skills. Curiosityville supports teachers with its proprietary
Teachers Helper to assess, assign and track children's progress as well
as communicate with parents. Launched in August 2012, Curiosityville is
the recipient of nine national awards, including a rare perfect score by
Common Sense Media (2012 and 2013), the 2012 Media of the Year Award by
Creative Child Magazine, the 2012 Best in Class Award by Interactive
Media Awards, a Mom's Best Award, and the Parent Tested Parent Approved
Award.
Forward Looking Statements This news release may
contain certain statements that are not historical facts, including
information regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations
concerning, among other things, our results of operations, financial
condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies, the industry in
which we operate and potential business decisions. Those statements
constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from
the results express in or implied by our forward-looking statements,
including, but not limited to, changes in state and local education
funding and/or related programs, legislation and procurement processes;
adverse or worsening economic trends or the continuation of current
economic conditions; changes in consumer demand for, and acceptance of,
our products; industry cycles and trends; conditions and/or changes in
the publishing industry; and other factors discussed in our news
releases, public statements and/or filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual and Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation, and do
not expect, to publicly update or publicly revise any forward-looking
statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
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