Charlotte-based Discovery Education is acquiring a competitor on the West Coast, education technology company DreamBox Learning.
The companies announced the deal yesterday and expect it to close in the fourth quarter. A spokesperson for Bellevue, Washington-based Dreambox said the companies aren't disclosing financial terms of the deal.
"We can now leverage Discovery Education’s highly scalable global footprint to reach more students and deepen our partnerships with educators around the world,” DreamBox CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson said in a news release.
The spokesperson said that DreamBox and Discovery will work out the integration and brand decisions following the close of the deal. The spokesperson added that DreamBox has "no changes to employee count at this time."
Discovery Education is backed by private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group. The company's learning platform offers curricula in science, social studies, math and coding. The company says it serves about 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide.
Discovery Education moved its headquarters to Capitol Towers in SouthPark in 2019. The company has a total of 600 employees. One of its top executives, Brian Shaw, was among the finalists in CBJ's CFO of the Year Awards program this year.
"Through this latest acquisition, Discovery Education is better positioned to broaden its impact on student success," Discovery Education CEO Jeremy Cowdrey said in the release.
DreamBox, founded in 2006, offers digital math and reading programs for kindergarten through 12th grade, and the programs are meant to adapt to individual students. In August 2021, DreamBox acquired online reading program Reading Plus for an undisclosed amount. DreamBox landed a $130 million investment from TPG's The Rise Fund in 2018.
In November 2021, DreamBox sold a majority stake in the company to Menlo Park, California-based Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an affiliate of the private equity firm Elliott Investment Management. Ten months later, the company laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
DreamBox declined to say how many employees it has, though the company lists about 330 employees on LinkedIn. That would be a nearly 18% decrease since it sold its majority stake in 2021, when it said it had about 400 employees.
According to a news release, Elliott Investment Management and TPG's The Rise Fund will keep a minority stake in DreamBox, which serves more than 6 million students and 600,000 educators.
