Stamford, USA: Canadian news and information group, Thomson''s efforts to buy Reuters, received a substantial boost in the arm yesterday when it sold off its education assets to private equity investors for $7.75bn (£3.9bn).

Thomson Learning''s sale of its higher education, careers and library reference assets to Apax and Omers Capital Partners will be a key move in the Canadian company''s efforts to realize a £8.9bn merger with Reuters.

"This sale is part of Thomson''s previously announced strategy to sell the assets of its learning business to enable Thomson to pursue opportunities better aligned with its strategy and business model," the Canadian group said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of the year.

Thomson had announced last October that it wanted to sell its education arm. Market analysts have been taken by surprise, however, by the price it has realized for the sale, as it far exceeds their prediction of $5bn-$6bn.

As for the deal with Reuters, which is yet to be finalized, Thomson is proposing to pay a mixture of cash and shares and retaining a joint UK and Canadian listing for the business. To be renamed as Thomson-Reuters, the new entity would be headed by Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer, even as Thomson president Richard Harrington would retire.

The proposed merger has raised fears of job losses among the combined workforce of nearly 50,000 in the two companies. There is also concern as to how Reuters, after 156 years of independence, would continue to protect its editorial integrity.

Union members at Reuters said that they were writing to the trustees to ask how the proposed tie-up would fit with principles limiting ownership and preventing Reuters falling into the hands of a single interest group.