O’Callaghan to remain after reverse takeover

BARRY O’Callaghan is expected to remain as chairman and chief executive of Dublin-headquartered global educational software company Riverdeep, if it succeeds with its anticipated €3.5 billion (€2.7bn) reverse takeover of US company, Houghton Mifflin.

Riverdeep is reported to be in negotiations with Houghton Mifflin — one of the leading publishers of educational literature in the US market — over a reverse takeover.

Riverdeep has an estimated value of around $1.5bn (€1.19bn) and is understood to have the extra funding backing of Credit Suisse supporting its bid. Additional funding could come from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

The combined backers will submit around $3.1 billion, with Mr O’Callaghan and Tony Lucki — his counterpart at Houghton Mifflin — each providing around $200 million.

If successful, the combined entity would be worth around $5bn (€3.9bn) and rival global leaders such as Pearson — which owns the Financial Times, McGraw Hill and Canadian group, Thomson.

The new-look Riverdeep could float within the next two years. Riverdeep famously floated five years ago when the dot com boom was at its peak, only for Mr O’Callaghan to take the company private again in 2003.

The attractiveness to a deal for Houghton Mifflin would be that it could gain access to the growing global market for online educational material via Riverdeep’s standing in the market.