World Book, Inc. Acquires Incentive Publications

March 7, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

worldbookWorld Book, Inc., a publisher of print and online educational products, has acquired Incentive Publications.

“We are thrilled to add Incentive Publications (IP) to our family of educational products,” said World Book, incentivepubInc. President Don Keller . “IP’s record of creating excellent supplemental resources for the classroom and promoting effective teaching strategies is directly aligned with our own mission to publish superior reference and instructional products and enlarge our educational publishing product line. IP’s wealth of supplemental classroom products will add to World Book’s impressive existing collection of standards-aligned materials to support teachers.”

USA, Chicago, IL & Grapevine, TX

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, Training/Education. Tags: , . Leave a Comment »

IAC acquires Tutor.com

January 7, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

IACIAC has acquired Tutor.com, an online tutoring solution. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1998, Tutor.com connects students anytime, anywhere with more than 2,500 screened and qualified tutors for immediate one-to-one sessions. Historically focused on core K-12 subjects, Tutor.com has more recently expanded into AP courses, test prep, college-level curriculum, and real-time writing help.

“Tutor.com has done the hard part, having built over many years an incredible nationwide network of high quality tutors ready to help tutorstudents improve their learning,” said Greg Blatt , CEO of IAC. “We think it’s ripe for us to accelerate usage by bringing to bear our consumer Internet expertise in areas like product, marketing and distribution. It’s not often we find a company with such untapped potential that our particular skill set can help unlock, in an area that truly helps people improve their lives, all at a compelling valuation. Although it’s small, we’re excited about the acquisition.”

George Cigale will remain CEO and continue to run the business from Tutor.com’s offices in New York City.

USA, New York, NY

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, ~North America. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

UPDATE: Tribal Group acquires International Graduate Insight Group

January 5, 2013 — askhabra

tribalTribal Group has announced that it has completed its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of International Graduate Insight Group (“i-graduate”). This news comes after its announcement on the 20th December that the provider of education, learning and training services worldwide had reached an agreement with i-graduate to acquire it, with the transaction completing on schedule.

The terms of the deal stated that Tribal Group will pay an initial amount of £2.86 million on completion and up to a maximum of £7.5 million subject to satisfaction of an earn-out criteria based on earnings over the 3 year period ending 31 December 2015. The unaudited profit before tax of International Graduate Insight Group Limited for the year ended 31 March 2012 was £423k and the value of gross assets at that time was £1,799k.

i-graduate is an independent benchmarking and analytics group, working in partnership with institutions and education organisations to provide evidence-based information on education experience and outcomes across higher education, further education and schools markets.  The business works with over 1,200 education institutions in 24 countries, receiving and analysing feedback from more than 1.3 million students of over 190 nationalities.  i-graduate will join Tribal’s Services business and will strengthen the Group’s evidence-based analytics offering.

i-graduate was founded in 2005 by Will and Lindsay Archer.  Will Archer will continue to lead the i-graduate business and will head up the integration of i-graduate’s offerings with Tribal’s existing financial benchmarking and analytic capabilities.

Tribal’s Chief Executive Officer, Keith Evans, commented: “This acquisition will enable us to strengthen our capabilities in this exciting and emerging area, expands our product offering to our existing customers and provides increased access for our existing products to the i-graduate customer base, both in the UK and in our targeted international markets.” The transaction is expected to be earnings accretive.

View original article

UK, London

Posted in Training/Education, ~Europe. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

Tribal Group acquires International Graduate Insight Group

December 21, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

TribalTribal Group, a provider of technology systems and solutions to the education, learning and training markets, is to acquire International Graduate Insight Group Limited (“i-graduate”), an education benchmarking and student experience research business.  The acquisition is expected to complete on 2 January 2013.

Tribal Group will pay n initial amount of £2.86 million on completion and up to a maximum of £7.5 million based on an earn out structure for the 3 year period ending 31 December 2015.  The unaudited profit before tax of International Graduate Insight Group Limited for the year ended 31 March 2012 was £423k and the value of gross assets at that time was £1,799k.

i-graduate is an independent benchmarking and analytics group, working in partnership with institutions and education organisations to provide evidence-based information on education experience and outcomes across higher education, further education and schools markets.  The business works with over 1,200 education institutions in 24 countries, receiving and analysing feedback from more than 1.3 million students of over 190 nationalities.  i-graduate will join Tribal’s Services business and will strengthen the Group’s evidence-based analytics offering.

i-graduate was founded in 2005 by Will and Lindsay Archer.  Will Archer will continue to lead the i-graduate business and will head up the integration of i-graduate’s offerings with Tribal’s existing financial benchmarking and analytic capabilities.

Tribal’s Chief Executive Officer, Keith Evans, commented: “Our strategic priority is to provide our customers with evidence based systems and solutions that will support the on-going improvement of educational outcomes.  Quantitative and qualitative technology based benchmarking and analytics is a cornerstone of the evidence base.  This acquisition will enable us to strengthen our capabilities in this exciting and emerging area, expands our product offering to our existing customers and provides increased access for our existing products to the i-graduate customer base, both in the UK and in our targeted international markets.”

UK, London

Posted in B2B Services, Consultancy, Content Media, Market Data & Information, Training/Education, ~Europe. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

McGraw-Hill to Sell Education Business to Apollo for $2.5 Billion

November 27, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

McGraw-Hill  is to sell its McGraw-Hill Education business to Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion.  Earlier reports suggested that McGraw-Hill had hoped to achieve a $3 billion sale.

McGraw-Hill announced a restructuring program in September 2011. After the sale of the education business McGraw-Hill will becoming a more focused financial services company and will change its name to McGraw-Hill Financial,

“After carefully considering all of the options for creating shareholder value, the McGraw-Hill Board of Directors concluded that this agreement generates the best value and certainty for our shareholders and will most favorably position the world-class assets of McGraw-Hill Education for long-term success,” said Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies who will lead McGraw Hill Financial once the transaction is complete.  “We were able to secure an attractive outcome and create additional balance sheet flexibility for McGraw Hill Financial.”

The Company will use the estimated proceeds of approximately $1.9 billion, net of tax and closing adjustments, to “sustain its share repurchase program, to make selective tuck-in acquisitions that enhance McGraw Hill Financial’s portfolio of powerful brands, and to pay off any short-term borrowing obligations.”

McGraw-Hill received financial advice from Evercore Partners and Goldman, Sachs & Co., and legal advice from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Clifford Chance.

Apollo received financial advice from Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank and BMO Financial Group.  The financing is provided by Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, UBS Investment Bank, Nomura and BMO.  Apollo received legal advice from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP.

USA, New York, NY

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~North America. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Pearson acquires online learning business EmbanetCompass for $650M

October 16, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Pearson PLC has acquired EmbanetCompass from an investor group led by Technology Crossover Ventures and Knowledge Universe, for $650m in cash.

EmbanetCompass partners with leading non-profit colleges and universities in North America to provide online learning solutions for more than 100 university programmes. It provides a range of services including: programme design and development, marketing and student recruitment, faculty training and support, data-driven student retention and learning analytics; student services (counselling, tutoring, mentoring), technology support and launch funding.

Institutional services are one of the fastest growing areas of the US higher education market. Out of 6,700 degree-granting institutions in the US, approximately 175 institutions engage third-party vendors to power online programmes. Of a total post-secondary student population of 22 million, 2.5 million participate in purely online programmes with over 6 million taking at least one online course. Pearson believes the number of students learning online and the number of institutions serving those students will grow rapidly, as academic institutions seek low-risk and cost-effective ways to better serve new and existing customers by boosting student access, affordability, achievement and retention.

EmbanetCompass revenues have grown strongly in each of the last three years and are expected to be approximately $130m in 2012. The transaction is subject to a Hart-Scott-Rodino review. Pearson expects the acquisition to enhance adjusted earnings per share and to generate a return on invested capital above Pearson’s weighted average cost of capital from 2014.

Will Ethridge, CEO of Pearson North America, said, “The acquisition of EmbanetCompass extends Pearson’s investment in two areas where we see great opportunities for growth and impact-online education and educational services.  The combination of Pearson and EmbanetCompass creates the premier provider of online learning and education services and will further enable us to advance the goals of the institutions and students we serve with innovative and proven programs.”

Founded in 1995, with locations in Chicago, Orlando, and Toronto, EmbanetCompass has 580 employees and is headed by Steve Fireng. He will stay on as CEO of EmbanetCompass and as a senior executive at Pearson.

UK, London & USA, Chicago, IL

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, Training/Education, ~Europe, ~North America. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »
Newer posts »