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1st Half 2014 Education Industry Trends
1ST HALF 2014 KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- The most active acquirer year-to-date was Providence Equity Partners with five industry transactions: PerceptIS, LLC, SIDEARM Sports Inc., Licensing Resource Group, AchieveGlobal, and MyEdu.
- Two transactions reached the $1 billion threshold in 1st Half 2014, both of which were backed by private equity firms: Charterhouse Capital Partners’ $2.3 billion acquisition of SkillSoft and Hellman & Friedman’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Renaissance Learning.
1ST HALF 2014 KEY TRENDS
- Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2014 increased by nine percent over 2nd Half 2013, from 147 to 160.
- Total transaction value in 1st Half 2014 rose by 45 percent over 2nd Half 2013, from $4.08 billion to $5.90 billion.
- The peak for deal volume and value over the past two and a half years occurred in 1st Half 2014.
- The median revenue multiple in 1st Half 2014 remained constant at 2.2x. However, median value saw a significant gain.
- The segment with the largest increase in volume in 1st Half 2014 over 2nd Half 2013 was K-12 Media and Tech with a 50 percent rise, from 22 to 33 transactions. Professional Training Services, the industry’s second most active segment, was another growth area with a 19 percent improvement, from 27 to 32 transactions.
M&A Market Overview
Berkery Noyes tracked 731 Education transactions between 2012 and 1st Half 2014, of which 183 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $18.41 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project the values of 548 undisclosed transactions to be $2.19 billion, totaling $20.60 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.
Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 1.9x revenue and 10.4x EBITDA.