Taleo Corporation (NASDAQ: TLEO), the leading provider of on-demand talent management solutions, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire strategic partner Learn.com, Inc. for approximately $125 million in cash.
With the acquisition, Taleo will extend its Talent Management suite, becoming the only public vendor to offer best-in-class solutions across the four critical components of a talent-optimized organization: recruiting management to source, assess and acquire talent; performance management to establish goals and create career and succession plans; compensation management to establish a true pay-for-performance process between corporate objectives and individuals' contributions; and now learning management to support social and formal development.
Learn.com is a leading next generation provider of SaaS learning management solutions, a market estimated to be $1 billion in 2011 according to Bersin & Associates. Its software enables businesses to more seamlessly develop, deliver and manage education and training to help employees, customers and partners reach their full potential. Learn.com's social learning and web conferencing features also enable companies to build collaborative learning and knowledge sharing solutions, which are among the fastest growing applications in employee development today.
Learn.com's solutions are in use today with more than 500 global companies of all sizes, and support up to 200,000 users per customer, with about two million end users worldwide.
The Learning Management Systems market is now entering a new growth phase -- one supporting social, collaborative, and informal learning solutions, said Josh Bersin, President and CEO of Bersin & Associates, a leading research and advisory services firm.
Through its acquisition of Learn.com, Taleo now has the opportunity to take a strong position in this market and deliver an integrated end-to-end platform which integrates recruiting, performance management, compensation, and learning into a complete SaaS solution.
Taleo and Learn.com have been strategic partners since September 2009, bringing to market a unique social and formal learning offering that helps companies to better leverage their internal social networks to share institutional expertise. More than 56 companies across a variety of industries have selected the Taleo and Learn.com solutions, including: Newell-Rubbermaid, Swift Transportation, and CPS Energy. Further, more than a third of Taleo's suite sales opportunities include interest in a learning management solution.
We've been impressed with the forward-thinking approach to learning from Taleo and Learn.com, said Mike Perkins, Senior Manager of Learning Technologies at Newell-Rubbermaid. With their help, we are powering robust, interactive and scalable social learning options for our teams that include video podcasts and development portals so that we can engage them in learning, where and when they need it. We look forward to partnering with the combined organization moving forward.
As businesses transform to ignite growth, they can't afford to create a knowledge gap between the skills they have in their teams and the skills they need to drive business, said Michael Gregoire, Chairman and CEO of Taleo. Learn.com's social learning and collaborative functionality makes it easier to close that gap. We are pleased to add best-in-class technology, staff and customers from Learn.com to enable enterprises with a total talent management solution to achieve greater performance.
Under the terms of the agreement, Taleo will pay approximately $125 million in cash for all of the outstanding capital stock of Learn.com, subject to deductions of approximately $1.6 million for certain specified items and subject to further adjustment for third party expenses. In addition, Taleo will offer up to $2 million of interim financing in connection with the acquisition, and such amounts, if any, drawn down by Learn.com and outstanding as of the closing of the transaction will be deducted from the purchase price. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, and is expected to be completed prior to the end of the fourth quarter of 2010.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisor and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati acted as legal advisor to Taleo Corp. on this transaction.