Sanoma Learning & Literature Acquires the Remaining Part of Young Digital Planet

Press Release 19.5.2010  10:30

Sanoma Learning & Literature, a part of the Sanoma Group, acquires the remaining 44.9% of the shares of Young Digital Planet (YDP), an innovative e-learning solutions provider in Poland. This acquisition enhances Sanoma Learning & Literature's opportunities to further develop and provide innovative e-learning solutions for its customers both in Poland and in its other operating countries.

"YDP became a part of the Sanoma Group in 1999. The ownership was raised to 55.1% in 2004. Bringing the acquisition process to a conclusion is a natural and long-planned action. This acquisition is a step forward in reaching our goal to become the leading European provider of learning materials and solutions," says Jacques Eijkens, CEO of Sanoma Learning & Literature.

Sanoma Learning & Literature plans to enhance co-operation between its three Polish learning companies, Young Digital Planet, Nowa Era and Vulcan, to enable synergies. These companies will continue as separate legal and operational entities, but will share a joint strategic management team.

"Bringing together the digital know-how of Young Digital Planet, the learning materials of Nowa Era and the school management systems of Vulcan forms part of our strategy to build educational workflow solutions that help teachers, schools and pupils to achieve excellent learning outcomes. Furthermore, we believe that the innovative strength of Young Digital Planet will give an additional impulse to the development of the online propositions of our Learning businesses in other countries," says John Martin, COO of Learning at Sanoma Learning & Literature.

Additional information: John Martin, COO Learning, Sanoma Learning & Literature:  +31 612 28 3912 or email: john.martin@sanoma-ll.com

Sanoma.com

YDP was founded in 1990 in Poland. In 2009, the company employed an average of 370 people. YDP is an innovative educational e-learning solutions provider and its products are marketed in almost 20 countries in Europe and Asia.

Sanoma Learning & Literature operates in eleven countries and is a leading European provider of learning materials and solutions in print and digital format. The Division has growing international language servics operations and it is also the leading general literature publisher in Finland. Sanoma Learning & Literature is part of the Sanoma Group, a strong European media group operating in diverse fields of media in over 20 countries.