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Linda K. Zecher, HMH's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We began 2015 on solid footing as we executed against our growth strategy. We remain the clear leader within K-12 adoption school districts thus far in 2015 and have continued to build momentum in key growth areas. As recently announced, we believe our planned acquisition of the EdTech business of Scholastic will enhance our ability to drive value for our shareholders by strengthening our core business and accelerating growth in adjacent markets.

A month after announcing its partnership with Shanghai-based Tencent Literature, Boston-based distribution and e-book-discovery start-up Trajectory Inc. has opened a suite of additional agreements pertaining to a new relationship with the major Chinese corporation Xiaomi.

The new deals include Macmillan, MIT Press, and UK wholesale distributor Gardners Books.

Trajectory is positioning itself as a bridge to such major Chinese retailers as Tencent and Xiaomi, for publishers in the West to use in getting their books into China's marketplace. A key to Trajectory's operation in this role is its Natural Language Processing Engine

Today Penguin Random House announced a new partnership with Amtrak that will provide a selection of free ebook excerpts to passengers riding the Boston to Washington, D.C. Acela Express. The excerpts will be available to passengers through Amtrak's redesigned WiFi service, AmtrakConnect, and each excerpt will include buy buttons that allow readers to purchase the title from a number of retailers.

Two Boston tech startups that have reimagined key parts of the college student experience are joining forces. Valore, focused on affordable textbooks and student loans, announced it has acquired Boundless, a developer of online/mobile textbooks and study materials.

The value of the deal wasn't disclosed, but I'm told that venture investors in Boundless have now received shares in Valore, a company that has been eyeing an IPO within the next few years. Valore says it's on track to surpass $100 million in revenue for 2015.

Faber is ending its partnership with American publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) after 17 years, ahead of announcing new plans for its business in the US.

Faber and FSG first partnered in 1998, when Faber sold controlling interest of its Boston-based US subsidiary, Faber and Faber Inc. to FSG. Faber and Faber Inc has since continued as an FSG imprint, run by New York-based publisher Mitzi Angel, publishing a performing arts list alongside literary fiction including Paul Murray's Skippy Dies and Ben Lerner's Folio Prize-shortlisted 10:04.

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