PARIS (AP) — French media company Vivendi Universal said Tuesday it has completed its sale of U.S. publishing house Houghton Mifflin to a group of private investors for $1.28 billion in cash.
Under the deal, the U.S.-based investment groups Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital are also assuming $380 million of Vivendi's debt.
Houghton Mifflin publishes a wide range of educational textbooks. Vivendi purchased the company in 2001 for $2.2 billion including debt.
Two other firms — Blackstone Group and Apax Partners — had originally planned to join an investor consortium buying Houghton Mifflin when the deal was first announced in October but they did not sign the final sale agreement last month.
Vivendi Universal is in the midst of a broad program to sell off assets to reduce debt. Earlier this year, it sold its European publishing assets to French media company Lagardere Group for 1.25 billion euros (about $1.3 billion).
The sales are part of Vivendi's goal of raising 16 billion euros ($16.7 billion) from disposals by the end of 2004.