Pearson buys eCollege in $538M deal

In a $538 million deal, educational publishing giant Pearson PLC has announced that its Pearson Education unit is purchasing eCollege.com, a purveyor of eLearning systems for both K-12 and higher-education institutions. eCollege supports approximately 180 institutions and its customers, including DeVry University, Kaplan University, Laureate, Texas A&M University at Commerce, and Eastern Michigan University. In 2006, student enrollments in its online courses were reported to be approximately 1.2 million.