Piper Jaffray Neutral on Global Education after Merger Annoucement with Pearson

Piper Jaffray has published a research report on Global Education

after the company announced its merger with Pearson plc

. In the report, Piper Jaffray writes, "Global Education announced today the company has entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger with Pearson plc, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Pearson. The deal is a cash transaction which values GEDU at $294mil or $11.006 per ADS. The company expects the deal to close in 4Q11. Excluding an expected cash balance of $139mil upon completion of the deal, the transaction is valued at 22.5x our NTM PF EPS estimate, which we feel is an attractive multiple for GEDU shares." Piper Jaffray maintains its Neutral rating and has raised the price target from $5 to $11 on Global Education, which is currently trading up $5.18 from Friday's $5.37 closing price.