Pearson buys virtual schools company

Textbook publisher Pearson announced today that it has acquired Connections Education, which operates virtual schools or academies in 21 states and serves roughly 40,000 students. The company is expected to turn a $190 million profit in 2011.

This acquisition is the latest in a long string of mergers and acquisitions within the ed-tech business community, and it marks the first time that one of the "big three" textbook publishers (Houghton Mifflin, Pearson Education, and McGraw-Hill) has stepped so deeply into the virtual education world.