Dive Brief:

• Learning technology company HMH's acquisition of NWEA, an education and research assessment nonprofit, is complete after a customary regulatory review that began earlier this year, according to a statement released Monday by HMH.  
• As expected, NWEA will become a new division of HMH and maintain its current offerings, including its MAP Growth assessments and tools. HMH said it will use the undisclosed proceeds from the acquisition for NWEA’s former board of directors to create a yet-unnamed independent, private foundation to serve students and educators nationally. 
• HMH and NWEA leaders, speaking before the acquisition was final, said the integration of HMH's curriculum offerings and NWEA assessments will help educators better understand students' academic progress and inform instruction and individual learning supports. 

Dive Insight:

HMH CEO Jack Lynch told K-12 Dive that he's been "very pleased with how everything's progressed since our original announcement." 

The acquisition will not disrupt services to K-12 districts, states and educators currently working with HMH and NWEA, Lynch said.

Boston-based HMH, also known as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was a public company before April 2022, when it became a portfolio company of Veritas Capital, a private investment firm. More than 50 million students and 4 million educators in 150 countries use HMH curriculum products and services, according to the company's statement. 

NWEA will retain its name and branding as a division of HMH, with Chris Minnich continuing as president of that division. NWEA works with students and educators in about 146 countries through research, assessments, professional development and more. 

Users of NWEA platform-agnostic assessments, which are not linked to any one curriculum, will still be able to use those tools. Lynch added that HMH will be looking at new opportunities to link NWEA assessments with HMH's curricula for customers who desire those offerings.  

Lynch said no layoffs have occurred as a result of the acquisition. He added leaders will continue to ensure the company is "properly resourced to execute our strategy."

"But so far, so good, you know — no major changes other than what we anticipated kind of leveraging the synergies of two organizations," Lynch said.

He added that the timing of the acquisition worked well for both NWEA, which began last summer to look for potential mergers with companies, and for HMH, which wanted to expand its customer base and increase the value of its offerings. 

"The strategic fit could not be better from our perspective," Lynch said.

The new foundation, which will be based in Oregon, will determine its name, structure and details of its mission over the next year, the statement said. It will be a separate entity from HMH, said Lynch.