Clearlake Capital Group, an investment firm, has acquired Discovery Education, an ed-tech company, through an affiliate. Clearlake will become the majority shareholder and Francisco Partners will retain a minority equity stake.
Discovery Education provides a digital learning software platform that supports educators and improves student achievement across nearly 100 countries. The firm serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide.
Clearlake Capital Group currently has over $60 billion of assets under management and focuses on the technology, industrials, and consumer sectors. Francisco Partners is an investment firm that partners with technology and technology-enabled businesses, having invested in over 400 technology companies.
“Francisco Partners has been a great partner in our pursuit of this vision, and I am grateful for their support,” said Scott Kinney, CEO of Discovery Education. “We look forward to Clearlake’s investment accelerating Discovery Education’s efforts to acquire like-minded companies that complement our portfolio. In addition, this new collaboration will enhance our efforts to deepen platform distribution, earn more of educators’ instructional time, and win customers.”
SVB Securities acted as lead financial advisor to Discovery Education. Jefferies LLC acted as a financial advisor, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP serving as legal advisor on the transaction. Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, and Macquarie Capital acted as financial advisors and Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor to Clearlake. Blackstone Credit provided committed debt financing for the transaction.