Rumors have been blowing around in the windy Back Bay streets by their corporate headquarters for weeks. In 2002 the company was purchased for about $1.7 by three private equity firms, two of Boston, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, and the Blackstone Group of London and New York from the then French owners, Vivendi Universal. The publisher came back to the Boston roots they put down in the mid-eighteen hundreds. Today a deal was reached that will put Houghton Mifflin in the hands of the Irish based Riverdeep for a mere $3.4 billion. When the deal is finalized the new joined company is expected to operate under the name Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group PLC, though it's not quite clear if subsidiaries Houghton Mifflin Company and Riverdeep will continue to operate independently.

Liability companies and numbers in the billions can get boring real quick. The new company will be about more than numbers and finance structure – it merges the publisher of the American Heritage Dictionary and the "100 Words…" series, as well as a vast array of textbooks with the more tech focused Riverdeep, responsible for nostalgic titles like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail. For the 222 Berkeley St. headquarters of the present Houghton Mifflin structure the resumes are flying out the door. In 2002 when the company was last sold there was a torrent of layoffs, the 1,200 employees are likely holding their breath. The two companies don't overlap too much in their current structures and purposes, but there is likely to be some restructuring causing a reduction in the labor force. Bostonist is crossing our fingers for our friends working for Houghton Mifflin hoping that the purchase by an Irish firm doesn't bring severance pay but rather European benefits like 'holiday' where you get to take a month off in the summer, or at least some good beer at the company Christmas party this year. Or, perhaps "Smithwicks" will just get special pronunciation guide treatment.

Fun fact: Houghton Mifflin also licenses the dictionary Microsoft uses in the spell and grammar check functions. Go ahead – open word and type in Houghton Mifflin. No red squiggles.

Image from Houghton Mifflin of one of their many titles.