Irish e-learning software player ThirdForce has acquired US e-learning company Mindleaders for US$18m.
Ohio-headquartered Mindleaders has a 25-year track record as a personalised learning provider of over 2,000 courses to 850 firms, including blue-chip companies like Federal Express and Perot Systems as well as government and the wider education market across the US and Canada.
The company said the acquisition consolidates ThirdForce’s position as the largest independent e-learning software vendor in the UK, the world’s second-largest e-learning market.
“We are building a global e-learning business organically and through acquisition,” said ThirdForce chief executive Brendan O’Sullivan.
“Key to that process is a US presence and in Mindleaders we have found an outstanding, established and innovative US company with the right people and prospects.
“We will now work hard to cascade the benefits of this merger across our impressive client base, associates and shareholders,” O’Sullivan said.
Mindleaders is ThirdForce’s fourth acquisition within the last four years. Last year it acquired Creative Learning Media and in 2003 it acquired The Electric Paper Company Ltd and AV Edge Ltd.
By John Kennedy
