Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG), a global leader in the high-growth workplace learning and talent industry, has acquired eThink Education, a leading provider of Moodle-based learning management systems (LMS), for an initial cash consideration of $20 million. This addition further bolsters LTG’s credentials in the high-growth Moodle market following the acquisitions of Open LMS and eCreators earlier this year.
eThink, a market leader in North America, will be integrated into LTG’s global Moodle business, Open LMS, in line with the Group’s intention to consolidate the commercial Moodle market, creating a market leader and force for good in the sector.
A growing company with strong potential for future organic growth, integrating eThink into Open LMS adds further customer experience excellence to the business. With a customer retention rate of 98% over the past 13 years, the customer-centric company serves more than two million users in 22 countries. Building on the combined product offering of OLMS, eThink enhances our ability to innovate the Moodle platform.
eThink has been a significant supporter of the open-source Moodle project, and plans to continue supporting and contributing to that global community. With more than 325 hosted Moodle clients, the Open LMS business now has more than 1,460 cloud-based Moodle clients, and 8,000,000 users.
eThink founders, Brian Carlson and Cheryl Patsavos, will be joining the enhanced Open LMS leadership team as Head of Sales and Head of Customer Success.
LTG’s Chief Executive, Jonathan Satchell, said: “eThink is an important addition to further build the Open LMS business acquired in April this year into an industry powerhouse in the high-growth Moodle market. The eThink team has built a strong business delivering high levels of both growth and profitability which will be taken to the next stage through integration with Open LMS. This year has seen incredible growth for LTG’s Moodle capability and it now represents about 20% of the Group’s recurring software revenue.”
Open LMS’s Managing Director, Phill Miller, commented: “We are excited to welcome eThink to the business, having found a significant amount of synergy between them and Open LMS. Brian, Cheryl and the eThink team focus on customer satisfaction above all else which has enabled them to build a thriving business. Adding eThink’s exemplary talent and expertise to Open LMS, further enhances our work in the fast-growing Moodle and Learning Management System market.”
As Open LMS’ new Head of Sales, Brian Carlson, added: “Open LMS, the newly-acquired eCreators, and now eThink all have unique strengths in their respective businesses. These strengths combined with the other existing business lines under the LTG family of companies will give us an expanded set of products and services, allow us to provide even better service, and now give us a complete global reach which we believe is extremely exciting for our clients. We cannot wait to begin unlocking this value to our clients and the Moodle and Totara communities at large.”
Cash consideration for eThink at completion will be $20 million. Further performance payments, capped at $16 million, are payable in cash based on ambitious growth targets in each of the years ending 21, 22 and 23.
LTG also acquired JCA Solutions on 3rd November 2020 for $1m. JCA Solutions operates in the e-learning interoperability standards market and will be merged with LTG’s Rustici Software business. George Vilches, JCA’s owner and CEO, will focus on software products at Rustici. This small acquisition further consolidates Rustici’s dominant, market-leading position in the SCORM, xAPI and cmi5 standards market, which is strategically vital as content and platforms become more tightly integrated.
Click here for Citybiz Interview with Brian Carlson, eThink Education
