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.

IRISH investors could face losses of close to €500 million as the Education Media & Publishing Group (EMPG), controlled by Barry O’Callaghan, faces a major restructuring of its $7bn-plus crippling debt.

DUBLIN Institute of Technology (DIT) is in talks with Egypt’s National Telecommunications Institute (NTI) with a view to establishing a centre of IT excellence there.

NOW that feeder school league tables are again upon us, it might be timely to reflect on the call made earlier this year by the heads of two of England’s leading independent schools, Eton and St Paul’s, for an end to the “tyranny” of league tables.

AUCTIONEER, and part-time racing pundit, Brian Gleeson, enthuses about two properties on his books at the moment.

THE global Irish education company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), formerly Riverdeep, made history yesterday with its €350 million R&D project into e-learning to be located in Dublin. The initiative also promises 450 jobs.

THE recent call by the heads of two of England’s leading independent schools — Eton and St Paul’s — for an end to the “tyranny” of league tables is timely.

THE new boutique, five-star Cliff House Hotel, coming on stream in west Waterford’s Ardmore, “is going to lift all boats in the village,” says locally-based estate agent Brian Gleeson.

IT’S very rare to get a large parcel of land in Co Cork at this time, but a 143-acre holding at Belrose, Enniskeane, had just come up for sale.

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.

WATERFORD must focus its efforts on luring some of the world’s leading financial services employers to the region. If they do, others will follow quickly, a leading economist said yesterday.

UNIVERSITY status for Waterford Institute of Technology is on the way and will “rock the region”, according to institute director, Professor Kieran Byrne.

WATERFORD boasts massive, unexploited potential as a major hub for the financial services industry, a key economist has claimed.

WATERFORD’S appeal as a hub of industry and commerce as well as a great place to live and work is to be promoted at a conference next month which is the brainchild of the local county council.

Tommy Barker visits what is reputed to be Ardmore’s finest property.

The Management buy-out of e-learning company Riverdeep is reaching a conclusion.

EDUCATIONAL software company Riverdeep has certainly provided a steep learning curve to investors in the company which was once valued at close to €2bn.

Shares in Riverdeep soared by up to 20% today after the Irish educational software publisher agreed to a management buy out which values its business at $376.3m (€353m).

Shares in Riverdeep were up over 14% mid-morning on news that founder Pat McDonagh is backing CEO Barry O’Callaghan’s bid to buy out the company.

THE ISEQ performed strongly yesterday gaining 64.06 points from Monday’s tally to close at 4310.71 points.

MOUNTING pressure on Riverdeep by some of its investors has sparked a buy-out attempt by chief executive Barry O’Callaghan.

THE Irish market traded lower for most of the day, before closing marginally higher at 4246.65 points, up 3.13.

Dublin-based support services company Riverdeep has received an approach from its chairman and chief executive Barry O’Callaghan which could lead to an offer being made for the company, it was reported today.

ANALYSTS suggested yesterday that e-learning firm Riverdeep has some questions to answer on its first-quarter figures for the fiscal year 2003 after a substantial drop in its profit margins.