Milken Bidding for Simon & Schuster Units

A group led by former junk bond king Michael Milken and other would-be buyers will make final bids for a big piece of the Simon & Schuster publishing business, a source familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday.

The sale of Viacom Inc.’s professional, educational and reference publishing divisions “is proceeding,” a Viacom spokeswoman said, declining to comment further.

In the latest development, the Milken-led consortium succeeded in getting cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc. to join in the bid, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The consortium also includes Knowledge Universe, which is controlled by Milken and Lawrence Ellison, chairman of database software maker Oracle Corp.; Thomas H. Lee Co.; and Apollo Advisers.

TCI declined to comment. Neither a Milken spokesman nor Oracle could be reached immediately.

Other bidders include private buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.; private investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc.; and publisher Houghton Mifflin Co., according to the source.

Representatives for Kohlberg Kravis and Hicks Muse declined to comment. Houghton could not be reached immediately.

The latest possible entrant is Pearson, the British media company. On Monday, Pearson signaled it could make a bid for the publishing business, which would make it one of the world’s biggest educational publishers.

Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone said the company expects to complete a deal this month.

“There are a lot of buyers,” Redstone said in a telephone conference call with analysts in April. “The process is going well. We’re extremely encouraged by the aggressiveness of interest by a large number of buyers. We’re well into the process and hope to conclude the process in May.”

Viacom said in January it was putting the units on the block but planned to hang on to the prestigious and high-profile consumer book unit.

According to a Simon & Schuster source, the consumer division has not made presentations to the interested parties, unlike its corporate brethren.