KKR & Co announced its agreement to take online education software platform Instructure Holdings private for $4.8 billion.
The deal follows a similar transaction where Bain Capital agreed to acquire PowerSchool Holdings for $5.6 billion. PowerSchool is a global education technology company supporting over 55 million students and over 17,000 customers in more than 90 countries. Vista Equity Partners and Onex Partners will continue to have minority investments in PowerSchool.
KKR’s offer of $23.60 per share for Instructure represents a premium of about 16 percent compared to the closing price, Reuters news report said. Thoma Bravo holds nearly 84 percent of Instructure’s outstanding shares and had initially taken the company private in 2020 for $2 billion. Thoma Bravo returned Instructure to the stock market a year later through an initial public offering.
Reuters earlier reported that KKR and Francisco Partners were in the race to buy the software company. Instructure offers the learning management system Canvas. Canvas competes with other programs such as Google Classroom, Blackboard Learn, and Schoology.
Instructure
Instructure also completed the acquisition of academic credential management platform Parchment for $835 million earlier this year.
Instructure is a global provider of learning management, education-tech effectiveness and credentialing solutions. Instructure has impacted approximately 200 million learners across more than 100 countries with a community of over 1,000 partners. Instructure is committed to broadening its platform and delivering $1 billion in revenue by 2028.
“Given its unique positioning at the center of academic life, Instructure has a distinct opportunity to be a true end-to-end partner to students, teachers and administrators,” said Webster Chua, Partner at KKR.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
