Pearson to Buy eCollege

Pearson, the publishing and education company, announced today that it has agreed to purchase eCollege, an e-learning company, for $477-million. But eCollege's Datamark student-enrollment division will remain independent and will be run by eCollege's current chairman and chief executive officer, Oakleigh Thorne. Matthew Schnittman, president of eCollege's e-learning division, will join Pearson to lead eCollege. Full Chronicle coverage of this announcement is available here. –Dan Carnevale