FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German publishing group Bertelsmann said on Monday it was acquiring U.S. online education provider OnCourse Learning from private equity firm CIP Capital for several hundred million euros.
The deal, priced in the "mid-nine-digit euro range" backs Bertelsmann's push into digital education and training, and will boost its presence in the United States, a growth market which already contributes around a fifth its sales.
OnCourse Learning, founded in 2007, is based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and employs 375 people. It provides digital corporate and advanced training courses for healthcare and financial services customers and has a smaller real-estate business.
"We are expanding our education business to include a company with significant growth potential," Bertelsmann's chairman and CEO, Thomas Rabe, said in a statement.
"At the same time, the transaction will further strengthen our presence in the U.S., where we already generate more than 20 percent of our revenues. In the future, we expect this share to rise to around 30 percent."
The acquisition is part of Rabe's strategic push to invest in growth areas - Bertelsmann's education division achieved revenue growth of 20 percent in the first half of the year - as it restructures its sprawling portfolio.
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The publisher - which spans eight divisions - is close to selling its Arvato CRM call-centre unit to free up capital to invest in growth projects while seeking to strengthen its established units, some of which face headwinds.
OnCourse Learning, which has an online library of around 22,000 courses, is used by around 750,000 people and 19,000 business customers. The U.S. market for continuing education in healthcare and financial services is estimated at $3.6 billion.
Its healthcare division will be folded into Bertelsmann subsidiary Relias, which also operates in healthcare industry, Bertelsmann said.
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by Thomas Seythal and Louise Heavens)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
