NEW YORK, July 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tyton Partners’ Investment Banking team successfully completed eight transactions during the first half of 2018 across a broad variety of assignments, including sell-side, buy-side, and growth equity capital engagements. The momentum builds on 2017’s record-breaking year relative to transaction volume and successful deal completion.
“We continue to see a healthy market with strategic acquirers and private equity firms aggressively looking for high quality assets, in particular SaaS and tech-enabled platforms,” said Christopher Curran, Founder and Managing Partner. “We expect these assets will continue to lead this M&A cycle’s growth engine within the global knowledge sector.”
Disclosed transactions are summarized below:
2018 Q2 DEAL SUMMARIES
Pathgather’s Sale to Degreed
Founded in 2012, Pathgather has developed a learning experience platform that aggregates all content across channels and ties specific skill development to employees’ performance needs and companies’ strategic goals. Its platform unifies, tracks, and reports on informal and formal learning taking place within any organization; empowers managers, experts and learning professionals to recommend, endorse and curate content; and aligns employees with their employers to gain skills and increase employee engagement broadly. Degreed plans to combine technologies from both companies and create a single learning platform. The combined entity will have a client base of more than 200 organizations, over 4 million licensed users, and over 230 employees dedicated to simplifying learning experiences and aligning people’s skills to business goals. Tyton Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Pathgather.
Castle Worldwide’s Sale to Scantron
Castle is an accomplished, widely respected, full-service certification and licensure testing company. It has over 30 years of experience and leadership in the science of psychometrics, licensure and certification test development, and internet-based test delivery. Castle’s advanced technological capabilities enhance the convenience and effectiveness of developing, administering, and maintaining a high-stakes testing program. The acquisition augments Scantron’s market-leading testing services by diversifying its assessments portfolio and is a valuable step forward in its strategy to be a global leader in assessment solutions. Scantron is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harland Clarke Holdings. Tyton Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Castle Worldwide.
Digital Measures Sale to Watermark
Digital Measures is a SaaS technology platform for centralizing faculty data and activities to address accreditation, evaluate performance, facilitate promotion and tenure, and showcase faculty achievements. The company is a leader in faculty information and serves 350 partner institutions by helping their faculty more easily and efficiently document their teaching, research, and service activities and track progress for review processes, while simplifying inefficient reporting processes for administrators. Tyton Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Digital Measures.
Learning Technologies Group acquisition of PeopleFluent
London-based Learning Technologies Group (LTG) is acquiring PeopleFluent from investment managers Bedford Funding I LP and Bedford HCM Holdings GP LLC. PeopleFluent is a leading provider of cloud based integrated recruiting, talent management, and compensation management solutions for large enterprise employers. The company has worked with over 5,100 organizations in over 200 countries and territories to engage employees to drive better business results. Over 50 percent of current members of the Fortune 100 rely on PeopleFluent as part of their talent management delivery strategy, helping them successfully achieve their talent aspirations. Tyton Partners sourced and identified PeopleFluent on behalf of LTG.
2018 Q1 DEAL SUMMARIES
Carnegie Learning’s Growth Equity Investment from Smithsonian Enterprises
Carnegie Learning is a transformational math education company focused on delivering better math learning to all teachers and students. Through research-proven software, textbooks, and professional development and data analysis services, the company is helping students to succeed in math as a gateway to graduation, college, and the 21st century workforce. Tyton acted as exclusive financial advisor to Carnegie Learning.
TCV’s Acquisition of a Controlling Interest in Watermark
TCV announced it was acquiring a controlling interest in Watermark, the largest provider of assessment software for higher education institutions worldwide. The company provides educational intelligence systems that allow colleges and universities to gain insights into student learning so that they can improve the quality of educational programs, assess institutional effectiveness, and streamline the accreditation process. Watermark’s solutions support over 1,100 higher education institutions, including the majority of the top 200 colleges as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Tyton acted as exclusive financial advisor to TCV in connection with the acquisition.
Excelligence Learning’s Acquisition of Steve Spangler Science
Really Good Stuff, LLC, a subsidiary of Excelligence Learning Corporation, acquired Steve Spangler Science, the Denver-based creator and marketer of innovative STEM-based products and learning experiments that introduce young minds to future opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math. The company provides direct-to-consumer STEM-related educational content and products designed to help teachers and parents create innovative learning experiences to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Tyton acted as exclusive financial advisor to Excelligence in connection with the acquisition.
Firecracker’s Sale to Wolters Kluwer
Firecracker is an adaptive learning, assessment, and study-planning solution used by more that 20 percent of U.S. medical students. The platform combines rich data analytics and machine learning to better ensure long-term retention of learned material and automated remediation of weak areas, while also providing faculty and administrators with an integrated course management, assessment, and analytics platform. Tyton acted as exclusive financial advisor to Firecracker.
About Tyton Partners
Tyton Partners is the leading provider of investment banking and strategy consulting services to the global knowledge and information services sector. With offices in Boston, Stamford, CT, Chicago, and San Francisco, the firm has an experienced team of bankers and consultants who deliver a unique spectrum of services from mergers and acquisitions and capital markets access to strategy development that helps companies, organizations, and investors navigate the complexities of the education, media, and information markets. Tyton Partners leverages a deep foundation of transactional and advisory experience and unparalleled level of global relationships to make its clients’ aspirations a reality and to catalyze innovation in the sector.
For more information, visit Tyton Partners or follow us @tytonpartners.
CONTACT:
Michael White
General Manager, Managing Director
mwhite@tytonpartners.com
(646) 512-4663