Thomson divests Prometric, buys Health Care Data

Thomson Corp. is selling its Prometric educational testing subsidiary to Educational Testing Service for $435 million.
Thomson has its operational headquarters in Stamford, while Prometric”™s office is in Baltimore where it had 400 employees at last report. ETS is based in Princeton, N.J., and is best known for administering the SAT college-entrance examination.
On behalf of ETS, Prometric administers the Test of English as a Foreign Language and the Graduate Records Examination required by many graduate-level programs. Prometric also runs computer-based exams for corporations.
Thomson acquired Prometric for $775 million in 2000 from Baltimore-based Sylvan Learning Systems Inc., and bolstered the operation via the 2004 purchase of CapStar from ETS. Prometric was operated as part of Thomson Learning.
In May, Thomson inked a deal to divest much of Thomson Learning to a consortium of private equity investors.
In separate Thomson news, the company acquired Health Care Data Inc. of Encitas, Calif., which provides analytic tools for clinical trials. The companies did not immediately disclose financial terms.