By Keith Reid, The Record, Stockton, Calif. Dec.

By Our City Staff The Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier sold itsUS education arm, Harcourt, to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep for $4bn ([pound]2bn) yesterday. The cash and paper sale follows a string of deals in the education sector as the industry undergoes a major shake-up.

Ireland's Riverdeep Holdings PLC, an educational software firm, said Wednesday it is buying Boston's Houghton Mifflin Inc., a big U.S. publisher. The deal is worth about $3.4 billion, some $1.75 billion in cash plus the assumption of about $1.61 billion in net debt. The sellers, Thomas H.

Houghton Mifflin Company announced the launch of Houghton Mifflin Science and Experience Science, two new elementary science programs that meet the teaching and learning needs of educators and students nationwide.

Houghton Mifflin Company announces the acquisition of many Larson Learning, Inc. K-12 mathematics products by two of its divisions, Great Source Education Group and McDougal Littell.