Our 2012 Tech M&A Report highlighted 2788 private tech companies acquired in 2012 and of those, 48 were private ed tech companies. This represented a slight M&A deal activity slowdown from 2011 which saw 51 private ed tech companies being acquired. While M&A activity was flat in Ed Tech, ed tech venture capital climbed significantly seeing $1.1 billion of funding in 2012.
The most active acquirers of ed tech companies in 2012 were comprised of John Wiley & Sons with 3 acquisitions followed by Pearson, Blackboard and private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, each which purchased two companies.
By size of acquisition, and based on publicly disclosed valuations, Pearson’s $650 million purchase of Embanet Compass marked the largest private company acquisition of 2012. Wiley’s purchase of Deltak for $220 million was number two in terms of size for ed tech M&A deals.
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