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White Plains, NY, July 1, 2008 – Haights Cross Communications, Inc. (HCC) today
announced that it has closed the sale of its Oakstone Publishing business to private equity
firm Boston Ventures. Terms of the sale have not been disclosed.
Haights Cross also announced today that it has suspended its previously announced plans
to offer for sale its test-preparation and intervention business, Triumph Learning; and its
audiobook publishing business, Recorded Books.
According to Paul J. Crecca, HCC President and Chief Executive Officer, “Earlier this
year, we announced plans to offer for sale each of Haights Cross’ operating businesses.
However, conditions in the capital markets, particularly in the leveraged finance market,
remain challenging. With these factors, and considering the timeframe in which sale
transactions could be completed, the HCC Board of Directors has concluded that the
company should suspend the sales efforts for Triumph Learning and Recorded Books.
We believe Triumph Learning and Recorded Books have leading positions in their
respective market segments and represent attractive growth opportunities.”
Triumph Learning is HCC’s test-preparation and intervention business and is comprised
of its Coach, Buckle Down, and Options brands. Recorded Books is a leading publisher
of unabridged audiobooks and other audio media for libraries, schools, and consumers,
with operations in the US and the UK.
About Haights Cross Communications:
Founded in 1997 and based in White Plains, NY, Haights Cross Communications is a
premier educational and library publisher dedicated to creating the finest books, audio
products, periodicals, software and online services, serving the following markets: K-12
supplemental education, public and school libraries, and consumers. Haights Cross
companies include: Triumph Learning (New York, NY), Buckle Down Publishing and
Options Publishing (Iowa City, IA), Recorded Books (Prince Frederick, MD), and
Sundance/Newbridge Educational Publishing (Northborough, MA). For more
information, visit www.haightscross.com.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This press release contains forward-looking statements which you can identify by terms
such as “subject to”, “might”, and similar expressions intended to identify forwardlooking
statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the
Company’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. Such statements include,
without limitation, statements regarding: the growth outlook and product line market
expansion opportunities for Triumph Learning and Recorded Books; and the anticipated
benefits of suspending the sales efforts for those businesses at this time. These statements
reflect the conditions upon which the transactions discussed in this release are contingent
on certain future events the outcome of which is not certain. These statements reflect our
current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to
known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties may cause our
actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those
expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause our
actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements include, among
others, risks relating to our ability to refinance our existing term loans, changes in
external market factors, changes in our business or growth strategy, or an inability to
execute our strategy due to changes in our industry or the economy generally, the
emergence of new or growing competitors and various other competitive factors, the
diversion of management’s attention and risk of loss of affected employees and/or
customers resulting from the prior announcement and implementation of our sales
process (now suspended); and other factors identified by us in documents filed by us with
the Securities and Exchange Commission including those set forth in our Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2007, under the caption “Risk Factors”. These
uncertainties and other factors may cause our actual outcome of the transactions
discussed in this release to be materially different from those expressed or implied by our
forward-looking statements. In light of these uncertainties, there can be no assurance that
the events and circumstances described in forward-looking statements contained in this
press release will in fact occur. You should read this press release completely and with
the understanding that our actual results may be materially different from what we
expect. We will not update these forward-looking statements, even though our situation
may change in the future. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these
cautionary statements.
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