Minsheng Education Group, a Chinese education services provider, agreed to acquire TCL Educational Web, an online education platform, from TCL, a partially state-owned Chinese multinational electronics company, for $59m. Minsheng considers the online and offline education integration as “the primary industry trend” in line with the national policy orientation and the company’s “campus education plus online education” strategy, it said. After the transaction, Minsheng will indirectly hold 80% shares in Chinese distance examination service Silk Road, which operates an online examination site for the Chinese Proficiency Test network, and another 50% stake in China’s largest distance education service provider, Open Distance Education.