{"id":66869,"date":"2021-05-11T13:31:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T17:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=magazine&#038;p=66869"},"modified":"2021-05-17T13:32:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T17:32:05","slug":"3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021"},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[2874,23626,28884],"class_list":["post-66869","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","hentry","tag-digital-learning","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-online-technical-training","global_topic_tax-it-and-technical-training","magazine_issue_tax-may-jun-2021","magazine_article_type_tax-closing-deals"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Tayrn Oesch DeLong, CPTM","author_image":"","author_bio":"<em>Taryn\u00a0Oesch\u00a0DeLong, CPTM, is the managing editor of digital content at Training Industry, Inc.\u00a0<\/em>","excerpt":"Vista Equity Partners\u2019 acquisition of Pluralsight may be a good sign for digital L&D platforms. ","main_content":"Last December, Pluralsight announced that Vista Equity Partners would acquire it for $3.5 billion \u2014 by our calculations, the largest reported sale of a training company in industry history (although, notably, Coursera\u2019s recent initial public offering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/susanadams\/2021\/04\/01\/online-education-provider-coursera-is-worth-7-billion-after-going-public\/?sh=661c1c9c15ec\">valued the company at over $7 billion<\/a>). In March, the company announced a revised agreement with an 11% increase over the original agreement: $22.50 per share instead of $20.26 per share (about $3.8 billion).\r\n\r\nPluralsight, which describes itself as a \u201ctechnology workforce development company,\u201d offers technical skills development and engineering management solutions. The company has also recently announced a couple acquisitions of its own: <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/press-release\/it-and-technical-training\/pluralsight-acquires-developintelligence-to-broaden-upskilling-experiences-for-enterprises-and-enable-businesses-to-accelerate-digital-transformation\/\">DevelopIntelligence<\/a>, provider of skills consulting and virtual instructor-led training (VILT) for information technology (IT), software development and engineering teams, and <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/press-release\/it-and-technical-training\/pluralsight-acquires-next-tech-to-accelerate-skills-development-through-hands-on-experiences\/\">Next Tech<\/a>, a cloud-based computing environment provider that enables the authoring and hosting of labs for hands-on software development, data science and machine learning training.\r\n<h2>A Perfect Storm<\/h2>\r\nAs a <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/12\/14\/vista-acquires-it-education-platform-pluralsight-for-3-5b\/\">TechCrunch article<\/a> pointed out, the demand for skilled technical professionals was high even before the pandemic, but the shift of many teams to remote work last year <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/jan-feb-2021\/remote-work-accelerates-elearning-trends-and-funding\/\">drove online learning consumption<\/a> through the roof. Individual learners, looking for ways to boost their careers in a challenging economy or simply looking for something to do with new free time, searched for eLearning opportunities like the ones Pluralsight offers through its individual course offerings. Companies, looking to pivot from in-person training to remote learning, searched for partners that would make it easier for them to do so through enterprise offerings \u2014 again, positioning Pluralsight to gain even greater market share.\r\n\r\nTechnical skills gaps, meanwhile, proved to be even more troublesome in a remote workplace, where difficulties with connectivity, remote collaboration and cybersecurity were exacerbated by distance and home networks. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/store.trainingindustry.com\/products\/training-in-the-time-of-covid-how-learning-and-develpment-is-responding\">Training Industry research<\/a> found that the technology industry increased its use of virtual instructor-led training from 29% to 39% and self-paced eLearning from 29% to 34% of their training after the start of the pandemic.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have seen firsthand that the demand for skilled software engineers continues to outstrip supply, and we expect this trend to persist as we move into a hybrid online-offline world across all industries and interactions,\u201d said Monti Saroya, co-head of the Vista Flagship Fund and senior managing director at Vista, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/press-release\/it-and-technical-training\/pluralsight-enters-into-definitive-agreement-to-be-acquired-by-vista-equity-partners-for-3-5-billion\/\">initial press release<\/a> announcing the acquisition.\r\n<h2>Why So Much?<\/h2>\r\nWith a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2021\/02\/10\/2173149\/0\/en\/Pluralsight-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-2020-Results.html\">2020 revenue of just $391.9 million<\/a>, why did Vista Equity Partners invest so much in Pluralsight? Ken Taylor, president of Training Industry, Inc., believes it\u2019s because Pluralsight has the potential to be \u201cmore than just a collection of courses\u201d and to become a \u201cdelivery platform.\u201d The company grew by 24% last year, so Vista Equity Partners is \u201cpaying a high multiple for a high growth rate company\u201d that it likely believes will enter more markets, he says. Plus, $391.9 million is nothing to sneeze at in the training industry, particularly in such a niche market.\r\n\r\n\u201cPluralsight has good margins because they primarily sell digital learning,\u201d Taylor adds, though with a cautionary note: Skillsoft, another online learning company, <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/press-release\/e-learning\/skillsoft-enters-into-agreement-with-lenders-to-significantly-reduce-debt-and-position-company-for-long-term-success\/\">filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year<\/a> before being acquired by Churchill Capital Corp II <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/nov-dec-2020\/skillsoft-and-global-knowledge-consolidate-creating-a-multimodal-training-giant\/\">and merged with IT training company Global Knowledge<\/a>. What\u2019s to stop the same thing from happening to Pluralsight? \u201cWhy won\u2019t the cost of maintaining the catalog become so big and so unruly and so difficult to manage that they end up with the same kind of problems?\u201d\r\n\r\nTaylor points out that we\u2019ll have to wait to find out, but with the future of learning shifting ever more toward digital, Pluralsight seems to be well aligned with what\u2019s to come.","full_width":false,"content_band":null,"tice_sponsors":"","custom_dfp_keywords":"","featured_article":false,"feature_type":"","theme":"","remove_gradient":false,"title_in_image":false,"featured_text_image":null,"magazine_link":"https:\/\/www.nxtbook.com\/nxtbooks\/trainingindustry\/tiq_20210506\/index.php#\/p\/54"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021 - Training Industry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Training Industry - by Michelle Eggleston. Training Industry Magazine articles, back issues, and advertising information can be found at TrainingIndustry.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Training Industry - by Michelle Eggleston. Training Industry Magazine articles, back issues, and advertising information can be found at TrainingIndustry.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Training Industry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TrainingIndustry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-17T17:32:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ti-logo-stacked.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TrainingIndustr\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/magazine\\\/may-jun-2021\\\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/magazine\\\/may-jun-2021\\\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\\\/\",\"name\":\"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021 - Training Industry\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-11T17:31:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-17T17:32:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Training Industry - by Michelle Eggleston. Training Industry Magazine articles, back issues, and advertising information can be found at TrainingIndustry.com\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/magazine\\\/may-jun-2021\\\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/magazine\\\/may-jun-2021\\\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/magazine\\\/may-jun-2021\\\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Magazine Article\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/magazine\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Training Industry\",\"description\":\"Articles, research and tools for the L&amp;D professional. Insights for managing the business of learning.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Training Industry, Inc\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/training_industry_logo_stacked_RGB1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/training_industry_logo_stacked_RGB1.png\",\"width\":371,\"height\":113,\"caption\":\"Training Industry, Inc\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/TrainingIndustry\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/TrainingIndustr\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/trainingindustr\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/training-industry-inc-\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/TrainingIndustry\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021 - Training Industry","description":"Training Industry - by Michelle Eggleston. Training Industry Magazine articles, back issues, and advertising information can be found at TrainingIndustry.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021","og_description":"Training Industry - by Michelle Eggleston. Training Industry Magazine articles, back issues, and advertising information can be found at TrainingIndustry.com","og_url":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/","og_site_name":"Training Industry","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TrainingIndustry\/","article_modified_time":"2021-05-17T17:32:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ti-logo-stacked.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@TrainingIndustr","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/","url":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/","name":"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021 - Training Industry","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-05-11T17:31:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-17T17:32:05+00:00","description":"Training Industry - by Michelle Eggleston. Training Industry Magazine articles, back issues, and advertising information can be found at TrainingIndustry.com","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/may-jun-2021\/3-8-billion-acquisition-demonstrates-the-value-of-online-technical-training-in-2021\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Magazine Article","item":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"$3.8 Billion Acquisition Demonstrates the Value of Online Technical Training in 2021"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/","name":"Training Industry","description":"Articles, research and tools for the L&amp;D professional. Insights for managing the business of learning.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/#organization","name":"Training Industry, Inc","url":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/training_industry_logo_stacked_RGB1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/training_industry_logo_stacked_RGB1.png","width":371,"height":113,"caption":"Training Industry, Inc"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TrainingIndustry\/","https:\/\/x.com\/TrainingIndustr","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/trainingindustr\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/training-industry-inc-","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/TrainingIndustry"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/66869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/66869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}