More Cuts at McGraw-Hill Education
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 1/7/2009 6:51:00 AM
McGraw-Hill Education ended 2008 the same way it began--by cutting hundreds of jobs. Parent company McGraw-Hill Cos. reported yesterday that it eliminated 215 positions in MHE as part of a companywide downsizing program that cut a total of 375 jobs in the fourth quarter. MHC took a restructuring charge of $26.3 million to account for the downsizing, including $11.4 million associated with the cuts in the eduction group. For the full year, MHE lost 455 jobs, for which MHC took a charge of $25.3 million. The number of positions eliminated for all of MHC totalled 1,045, which resulted in a $73.4 million charge.MHE initiated the downsizing because of disappointing results in nearly all of its operating groups. MHE is home to the school group as well as the higher education, professional and international operations. The school group has had the most disappointing year as sales for the entire el-hi segment have been much less than predicted due to state budget cuts. Sales have also been soft in the professional segment (which includes MHE's more trade-oriented operstions), while sales in higher education and international have been up. Total revenue for all of MHE fell 1% in the nine months ended September 30, and although operating profit fell 17.5%, the company still had earnings of $330.7 million for the nine month period.
