O’Callaghan’s ambitious vision was education media firm’s driving force

EMPG, or Education Media & Publishing Group, began life in its current guise in 2007 with the $4 billion takeover of the Harcourt US Schools Education business from European information and publishing group Reed Elsevier.

Prior to that, the company went under the name HM Riverdeep, a label which neatly represented the 2006 $5bn post-debt merger between Dublin-founded e-learning product supplier Riverdeep and US educational publisher Houghton Mifflin.

Riverdeep had grown fast since its Dublin birth in the mid-1990s, driven by the ambitious vision of Cork-born former international investment banker Barry O’Callaghan once he took over the reins in 1999.

Mr O’Callaghan assumed majority and controlling shareholder status of the company after it de-listed from the Nasdaq and ISEQ in 2002 – after two years of marked highs and lows in share value.

He drove its growth through a number of bolt-on acquisitions costing a combined $300 million in the early part of this decade.

The Houghton Mifflin deal saw the Irish company take over the company from affiliates of leading private investment firms Thomas H Lee Partners, Bain Capital Partners and the Blackstone Group.

EMPG’s continued expansion, via the Harcourt acquisition, increased its standing in the international educational publishing market but also increased the group’s debt levels to a reported $7bn. That pressure was eased by a relaxation of its lending covenants last year and the previous $750m sale of its college education division, leading to about 10% being knocked off that figure.

EMPG generated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of around $750m last year, roughly a 20% increase on the previous year, and had targeted similar growth to around $900m for 2009.

Two years ago, EMPG also entered a $125m deal with the Dubai government to target the educational publishing market in the Middle East.