Wicks Group Pays $44 Million for EMC

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 2/7/2005

The Wicks Group, a New York City–based private equity firm, will increase its presence in the education market when it closes on its purchase of EMC/Paradigm Publishing within the next few months. In January, the company signed a letter of intent to pay $44 million for the St. Paul, Minn.–based educational publishing company, which had sales of just under $30 million in 2004.

EMC publishes for both the elhi and college markets. Its focus in the school market is on foreign language, literature and business, while its college segment targets business and allied health. The company was founded in 1954 by David Feinberg, who will retire after the sale.

EMC will join Delta Education as the two pillars in Wicks's education group. The company acquired Delta in 2001 and has since added Educators Publishing Service, Modern Learning Press and Touchphonics Reading Systems.