Maxwell Rejects Offer to Buy Its Stake in Berlitz

Maxwell Communication Corp. said today it had rejected an offer of undisclosed size for its 56% stake in Berlitz International Inc., the language services company that went public late last year.

The British-based Maxwell called the offer inadequate but declined to say what the offer was.

Maxwell Chairman Robert Maxwell said in a statement that the offer had come from K-III Holdings, a partnership led by the former head of the Macmillan Inc. publishing company and financed largely by the leveraged buyout specialists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

Charles G. McCurdy, another former Macmillan executive now at K-III Holdings, said K-III had no comment on its offer or whether it planned to pursue it further.

In midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Berlitz was up 37 1/2 cents a share at $16.12 1/2.

At that price, its total of 19 million common shares outstanding are worth about $307 million.