Hit #167 (eCollege)

Online education enabler, eCollege (ECLG), is being bought by Pearson for around $530 million in cash. The $22.45/share offer makes for a gain of 13.1% over my cost/share of $19.85.

I have been waiting for this for a while now, though a higher price would have been more welcome! Given rival Blackboard's relative success, eCollege had to settle for less.

Few others in this or related education/skills monitoring sector look attractive. These include Plato Learning (TUTR), Renaissance Learning (RLRN), SkillSoft (SKIL) and Princeton Review (REVU). Among these Plato has been on my watchlist for a while, though I have not bought any shares yet.

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