ONLINE education group Espresso, founded a decade ago by former Blue Peter editor Lewis Bronze, is doing its homework on a possible sale that could value it at up to £70m.

The company, which supplies classroom software and video clips to almost half of Britain’s 17,500 primary schools, has appointed investment bank Jefferies to study options for expansion.

Content from Espresso’s digital library of learning materials is delivered by broadband each week and stored on schools’ servers.

Backers include the news organisation ITN, which contributes video clips from its archive. Venture capitalist Beringea also has a 30% stake.

It is thought that the management has yet to decide whether to pursue a sale. A lot depends on how well Espresso fares in the key school selling season which runs until its year-end in July.

If it proceeds, interested buyers are expected to include the education giant Pearson, which owns the Financial Times, and Granada Learning, owned by the private-equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

Espresso is breaking into selling clips to secondary schools after the acquisition last year of Channel 4 Learning, which distributed DVDs and CD-Roms. Clipbank, which sells footage of key historical events such as the moon landing, costs a school £3,000 a year.

The company has benefited from the closure of BBC Jam, an education service funded by television licence-fee payers. Group sales rose 59% to £11.9m in the year to July and it posted a £406,000 operating loss.

Espresso is also eyeing overseas markets, particularly those that have a national curriculum, such as Sweden.

The company and Jefferies declined to comment.

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