Pearson to buy edn business

LONDON, Mar 7 (Reuters): British publishing group Pearson has agreed a deal to buy Education Development International (EDI) for 113 million pounds ($184 million) to further boost its presence in the training and assessment market. Pearson, which owns the world's largest education business, said Monday it had already received support for the deal from over 30 per cent of EDI's shareholders which includes the firm's directors. The media group believes the acquisition will further boost its strength in the education and testing business as EDI has a strong reputation for the use of IT to conduct learning programmes and deliver on-screen assessment. The offer at 200 pence in cash for each EDI share represents a premium of around 61 per cent to the closing price on March 4, the last business day before the offer period.