Education Divisions Boost McGraw-Hill and Pearson Earnings

Two of the biggest players in education publishing had good news to report in their most recent earnings filings, even though McGraw-Hill (MHP) supplied more tangible information than its U.K.-based competitor, Pearson (PSO).

McGraw-Hill Sees Strong Gains in Education Division

For its third quarter, McGraw-Hill's profit rose to $380 million, or $1.23 a share, from $336 million, or $1.07 a share in the year-earlier period -- a 15% increase from the same time last year and way above analysts' expectations of $1.10 EPS. Total revenue grew by 5.5% to $1.98 billion, also beating analysts' projections for the company.

On the education side, revenue jumped 5.5% to $1.1 billion while operating profit grew 19.9% to $357.5 million. That took into account a $3.8 million pre-tax gain on the divestiture of a secondary school business in Australia, while foreign exchange had negligible impact this quarter, a far cry from previous earnings periods.

Looking at specific education segments, revenue for the School Education Group increased by 6.7% to $534.7 million compared to the same time last year, while the higher education side went up 4.3% to $520.0 million. The School Education Group is now on track to capture 30% of the estimated $825 million to $875 million state new adoption market in 2010, owing in large part to substantial orders from the adoption states with the biggest student enrollments, such as Texas, California, and Florida.

Good news also came from the Standard & Poor's side, as that division's revenue increased 9.5% to $697.4 million compared to 12 months ago. The biggest reason? High-yield debt issuance.

As for information and media, Q3 revenue declined by 4.7% to $227.8 million compared to the same period last year, but it would have increased 5.1% if not for lingering residue from the sale of BusinessWeek to Bloomberg. Operating profit for this division also increased by 55.1% to $45.8 million in the third quarter.

In a statement, Chairman, CEO and President Harold McGraw III attributed the earnings jump to a slew of factors, including "surging global high-yield issuance in the bond market, a solid gain at S&P Indices, increases in U.S. elementary-high school and higher education in the seasonally most important quarter of the year, double-digit increases in the sales of digital products and services in higher education and professional markets, and global growth in energy information products."

Looking ahead, the company is bumping up its guidance, now anticipating earnings per share somewhere between $2.60 and $2.65, even with a one-time gain of 2 cents EPS from recent acquisitions.

Pearson Finds Success in Move to Global Learning Technology

As for Pearson, its nine-month trading report was thin on numbers and long on percentage-driven positive news. Overall, the company increased sales by 7% and adjusted operating profit 15% in the first nine months of 2010. Its trade book publishing arm, Penguin, saw revenue grow 5% compared to last year, and the education side increased 7% from 12 months ago. That piece of news caused Pearson to remark that it continues "to accelerate our transformation from book publisher to the leading global learning technology and services company through organic investment and bolt-on acquisitions."

An 11% jump in revenue for the Financial Times came about because of "strong demand for its print and digital content," increased M&A activity and sustained advertising growth. For Penguin, Pearson noted that "physical retail markets are tough," but they were offset "by strong publishing and rapid growth in eBook sales" for 16,500 titles currently available. Industry newsletter Publishers Lunch ran the numbers, and for e-books that means "if Penguin ebooks went from 8.5% of U.S. sales after two quarters to 10% of U.S. sales in the third quarter, that would comprise revenue of approximately $4 million."

In other words, as is the case for almost all big publishers right now, e-books are growing, but the story is still small potatoes compared to larger sectors like education -- and print publishing as a whole.


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Some U.S. College Students Look to the U.K.

LONDON—When final-year economics undergraduate Robert Rogers transferred from Georgetown University to the London School of Economics, his annual tuition fees plummeted to around $20,000 a year from around $41,000.

"It didn't even occur to me to apply abroad when I was in high school," said Mr. Rogers, on a recent afternoon outside the LSE's Students' Union. "I certainly didn't hear of any of my [high-school] classmates applying to study abroad."

Mr. Rogers said that his reasons for moving to the LSE weren't financially motivated. But finances drive others to follow him. As tuition at U.S. colleges increasingly becomes less affordable for many—and as spots at the most competitive institutions more and more resemble gold dust—some American high schoolers are looking to the United Kingdom to meet their educational needs.
Doing the Math

It is almost heresy to say it right now here in the U.K., what with English students recently taking to the streets in protest at the government's proposal to raise tuition fees to no less than £6,000 a year (just under $10,000) for some domestic enrollees, but the fact remains that, by U.S. standards, universities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland remain a "cheap" place to get an education.

Tuition fees in the U.K. vary from institution to institution, and also from region to region, but the cost for an overseas undergraduate at University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, for the academic year 2009-2010 would be about $19,000.

And if you're lucky enough to be able to claim "home" or "European Union" status, this figure would be just shy of $3,000 a year—though it is set to triple or even quadruple from 2012 onward for some institutions south of the Scottish border under the British coalition government's aggressive overhauls to higher-education funding.

Even to study in the University of Oxford's hallowed halls would cost a U.S. student just over $20,000 for an undergraduate program of study. (The fee would be about $4,700 for a U.K. student.)

Every college that features in the top 20 of the U.S. News and World Report's most recent ranking of best U.S. colleges costs at least $34,000 a year for tuition and fees. Most, in fact, are closer to $40,000 a year, and quite a few top that level.

The downsides of going abroad include: plane tickets, time zones, foul weather and the cultural labyrinth resulting from two nations divided, as the saying goes, by a common language. However, if one is contemplating spending at the higher end of the scale, there is also approximately $80,000 or more to be saved.

More than 3,000 normally U.S.-domiciled undergraduate-level students applied to do just that in 2009, according to UCAS, the organization responsible for managing applications to higher-education programs in the U.K. And while only 1,330 were accepted, according to UCAS, the relatively modest numbers mask a rising trend.

There has been a 27% increase in undergraduate applications from U.S. students since 2006, while the total number of U.S. students studying for full degrees at British higher-education institutions as of 2009—across both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels—stands at just over 14,000, data from the U.K.'s Higher Education Statistics Agency show.

It is "very important that [students] enter the global economy with global competencies," said Allan Goodman, president and chief executive officer of the Institute of International Education, in emailed comments.

Todd Weaver, an education consultant with Strategies for College Inc., a Canton, Mass.-based advisory firm, said that while students and parents in the U.S. are starting to realize that it is relatively inexpensive to study in places such as the U.K., they are also weighing the reduced cost against "the ability to have a network in place after college" when job hunting.

"If you go to school in New England, for example, there's a good chance you will be looking for a job in the local area," said Mr. Weaver.
European Vacation?

Steven Goodman, an admissions strategist with education specialist Top Colleges who has worked extensively placing students at colleges as far afield as Romania and South Africa, said the major difficulty facing U.S. students who want to study in the U.K. isn't necessarily to do with the perceived job market back home, but with "the English secondary-school specialization that is not usually a part of the American high-school curriculum."

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UK small caps climb higher at midday; Sanatana Diamonds top on Kimberlite find

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK small caps climbed higher at midday, reflecting the positive mood of the wider market, with Sanatana Diamonds the top riser after its Kimberlite discovery.

At 12.05 pm, the FTSE Small Cap index was 4.30 points up at 3,792.70, while the FTSE 100 was 33.40 points ahead at 6,533.80.

Sanatana Diamonds gained 4-1/2 pence to 20-1/2 as it announced a discovery of Kimberlite on the Greenhorn Project in the Northwest territories.

It said Kimberlite, a type of rock best known for containing diamonds, was intersected at a 5.5 metre depth during the drilling of a vertical hole on the G14 magnetic anomaly.

The new kimberlite has been named 'Dharma'.

Drilling is continuing in kimberlite at a greater than 145 metre depth and will continue as long as it remains in kimberlite or until the drill reaches the end of its supply of drilling rods at 250 metres, the company said in a statement.

Also buoyed by positive drilling news was Kalahari Minerals, which moved ahead 2-1/2 pence to 25-1/2 as it said it has received further positive drilling results from its Witvlei project in Namibia, prompting Evolution Securities to keep its 'buy' stance on the stock.

Completing the hat-trick was Lithic Metals which stayed higher, up 1 pence to 7, but slipped from an earlier high of 7-3/4 pence, on the back of encouraging nickel reach results from its Mitaba Hills Project in Zambia.

Intercede Group climbed 6 pence higher to 38-1/2, as the smart card and identity management software maker reported 'excellent' progress in the first-half to end September, adding its sales for the period rose more than 20 pct compared with the year-ago period, while provider of educational qualifications and assessment services Education Development International rose 2-1/2 pence to 37 as it predicted group adjusted operating profit of not less than 2 mln stg for the year.

Positive trading news also lifted Redhall Group 10 pence to 250 as the specialist engineering support services group revealed another year of strong growth and confirmed that full-year results are anticipated to be slightly ahead of market expectations.

Each of the group's three operating divisions has seen material improvement in trading year on year.

Elsewhere, on a more modest note Landround ticked up 1 to 17-1/2 after the AIM-listed rewards programme and promotions group disclosed narrowing losses at the half-way mark, while Lighthouse Group, 2 pence higher to 25, said it did not see any reason for the recent movement in the group's share price, but said current trading remains strong, with full-year results expected to be in line with expectations.

Specialty drug company Vernalis ticked up 2 pence to 17-1/2 after its executive chairman Peter Fellner bought 252,000 shares at 16.25 pence each, lifting his stake to 415,888 shares or 0.133 pct of the company's issued share capital.

Meanwhile, a contract win for Nasstar lifted shares 2-1/2 pence to 38, as the software supplier said it had won a contract of undisclosed value to provide electronic communications and services to Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup.

AIM-listed Nasstar said it would supply easyGroup's easyCar, easyBus,

easyHotel and easyCruise businesses with hosted desktop, hosted exchange email,

hosted BlackBerry and hosted sharepoint services.

The contract is for an initial period of 1 year with an immediate

requirement of more than 130 users subscribing for a combination of Nasstar's

on-demand services, Nasstar said.

Meanwhile car dealership group Lookers shifted up a gear, adding 4-1/4 to 142, following the acquisition of rival Dutton Forshaw Group from Lloyds TSB Asset Finance Division for up to 60 mln stg, prompting KBC Peel Hunt to keep

its 'buy' rating on the stock and 250 pence price target.

In a statement earlier today, the company said the deal comprises a payment

of about 28 mln stg for the entire issued share capital of Dutton Forshaw and

the assumption of a maximum of 32 mln stg of debt.

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Tracing musical style through technology

Aberdeen academics will employ the techniques of DNA sequencing to look at how music has changed over the centuries.

They are part of an international team successful in securing a £100,000 grant from the Digging into Data project, which supports researchers using computational techniques to change the nature of humanities and social sciences research.

Dr Frauke Jurgensen, a lecturer in music at the University of Aberdeen, will lead the Aberdeen team, working alongside academics from Canada and the USA, to study changes in musical style from 1300 to 1900.

They will employ computational techniques, including those more commonly used in genetics research, to pinpoint transitions in musical style which could ultimately change the way in which we appreciate and perform music from this era.

Dr Jurgensen will focus on Renaissance music, analysing the changes in musical chords and melodic motions using advanced music information retrieval techniques.

She said: “As a singer I have a strong interest in music from a performance perspective, and if you are going to perform or even listen to music then you have to understand it.

“Modern audiences are not going to be familiar with much of the music we are looking at, since we subconsciously build up an understanding of the music we normally listen to.

“Much of the music we are investigating deserves to be performed, and we hope that by developing our understanding of the way it is constructed, we can help modern audiences and musicians to connect to it.”

Dr Jurgensen will use the digitised collections of several large music repositories, including the music of Palestrina and his contemporaries, to extract answers as to how the styles of the composers differ.

She will work with Professor George Coghill, Head of Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen and Dr Ian Knopke from the BBC, with Dr David Smith, Head of Music at the University of Aberdeen, acting in an advisory role.

“The collections we are looking at extend to thousands of pieces and if you were to attempt this kind of analysis by hand it would take many years.

“By using digitised data we are able to use pattern matching techniques similar to those in DNA sequencing to look at both similarities and differences in the music.

“We will be able to pinpoint the way in which a composer writes a piece of music that makes it different from another composer from the same period.

“This way of looking at music should help us to understand not only how this older music works, but also affects our understanding of newer music, which is underpinned by similar concepts.”




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Cambridge University unveils letter from Charles Dickens to his son

It's like any letter written by an affectionate dad to his student son at university: work hard, keep a close eye on your spending, and if you have any problems, let me know.

A revealing missive penned by Charles Dickens to his son Henry nearly 150 years ago has been highlighted by Cambridge University today on the 200th anniversary of the great writer’s birth.

The letter was written while the author of Great Expectations was staying at a hotel in Liverpool, in October 1868. Dickens’ son, Henry, then just 19 and the first of the writer’s 10 children to go to university, had just arrived at Trinity Hall in Cambridge, to study maths.

His message to his son, which begins "Dear Harry", reveals that student debt is by no means just a 21st century phenomenon. It says: "I enclose you another cheque, for £25," and goes on to discuss his allowance, £250 a year ("handsome for all your wants") his requirements for furniture and clothes ("I strongly recommend you to buy nothing in Cambridge") and his decision to send him a consignment of drink, so he can enjoy the undergraduate life – three dozen bottles of sherry, two dozen bottles of port, three dozen light clarets, and six bottles of brandy.

Dickens Senior then exhorts his young son to be prudent when handling money: "Now observe attentively – we must have no shadow of debt." Throughout his life, Dickens was haunted by the memory of his own father sinking into debt, and being sent to prison as a result. Charles was sent to the pawnbroker’s with the family books and much of their furniture, and was later sent to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory, aged just 12.

The letter, given to the Cambridge college in 1957 by Christopher Dickens, one of Henry’s grandchildren, tells the young student: "You know how hard I work for what I get, and I think you know that I never had money help from any human creature after I was a child. If you ever find yourself on the verge of perplexity or difficulty, come to me. You will never find me hard with you while you are manly and truthful."

Dr Jan-Melissa Schramm, fellow in English at Trinity Hall, has written two books for Cambridge University Press about Charles Dickens. She said: "The letter speaks very powerfully to the parents of students today, not only about caring for their children’s spiritual well-being, but also about supplying their material wants.

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IBM relies on social business software at Lotusphere conference

At the IBM's Lotusphere conference in Florida last month, Big Blue made several announcements on the future of its enterprise collaboration software.

The theme was social business, and it was evident from the number of sessions with the word "social" in the agenda, that IBM is banking on it to drive growth in businesses (including its own) in the future.

Ultimately, social business is a competitive differentiator," says Alistair Rennie, GM of collaboration solutions at IBM.

Speaking at the opening general session, Rennie says businesses can profit from harnessing the knowledge and skills of its employees by implementing social networking functions into their IT. He says current collaboration tools, like email, are being misused, and companies should focus on a unified and integrated communications platform.

"I would shut off my own email if it wasn't running on Lotus Notes," jokes Rennie.

IBM says it is ready to provide the social business platform of the future, and announced a host of collaboration-orientated changes to its Lotus software to meet that demand. Big Blue demonstrated its much anticipated cloud-based document collaboration tool, IBM Docs.

The software, formerly known as LotusLive Symphony, lets users edit and manage documents with real-time collaboration, and has many of the same features found in competing products such as Google Docs and Office 365. Docs is currently in closed beta, but IBM says it will be available later this year as a part of its new SmartCloud for Business product.

IBM's Sametime also received new features this year. The telephony and communications software will see deeper integration into different Lotus systems, including the ability to start video conferencing from within emails and instant messages, using Polycom's RealPresence technology.

Collaboration software

IBM's social business platform will be tied together with its Connections collaboration software, which IBM says also supports Notes and Domino, Exchange and Sharepoint software.

Children's Hospital Boston is currently using the Connections software to help staff collaborate on cases within the hospital, and also externally through what it calls 'telemedicine'.




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Asus Talks Refunds for UK Transformer Prime Users

The Asus Transformer Prime got off to a bit of a rocky start, and the fact that the company announced a brand new model just a few weeks after it hit the shops probably didn't help matters. The company has done its best to placate users unhappy with the GPS, supposed WiFi issues and locked bootloader, but the company is now offering another alternative: A full refund. The company today said that extensive checks have confirmed that no units with WiFi issues have been supplied to customers in the UK, it is willing to refund customers that are still unhappy with their device.

"After extensive checks we can confirm that no units have been supplied to the UK with a known WiFi issue. Any customers experiencing WiFi issues specifically are advised to contact our support hotline on 0870 1208 340," Asus UK said. "Any customers who have purchased a Transformer Prime TF201 and are dissatisfied with the performance of the GPS module are advised to return the unit to their point of purchase for a full refund as per standard consumer rights that apply in the UK."

For those that don't want to return their brand new tablet, the company is offering to extend its standard 12-month warranty to 18 months. Users wishing to extend their warranty can do so by calling the number mentioned above.

If you've bought a Transformer Prime but are eager to get the improved version, the TF700, then you should think carefully before returning your TF201. Asus UK says the TF700, announced last week at CES, won't arrive in the UK until June, which means you could be without tablet for as much as six months before the upgraded version becomes available.

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