Cloud-based K-12 education software company PowerSchool Holdings Inc. has signed a letter of intent to acquire SchoolMessenger, a provider of communications tools for the K-12 market.
Folsom-based PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) is buying SchoolMessenger from West Technology Group LLC for $300 million in cash.
“PowerSchool and SchoolMessenger have a shared mission to support educators, students and their families with industry-leading technology,” said SchoolMessenger General Manager Chris Johnson, in a news release. “PowerSchool and SchoolMessenger have an ongoing partnership and we are pleased that SchoolMessenger customers will have an excellent home at PowerSchool.”
The combination of the communications platform of SchoolMessenger with PowerSchool's 19 different education and administration products will allow educators better access to increase family engagement for student success, the companies said.
West Technology is controlled by affiliates of funds managed by Apollo Global Management Inc. (NYSE: APO) of New York.
SchoolMessenger provides tools to reach parents across voice, text, email and social media, and it has a built-in automatic translator for more than 100 languages. It's been in business since 1999. SchoolMessenger serves 28 million students, and it has customer districts and schools in 50 states and Canada.
PowerSchool launched in 1997, offering online tracking of grades and attendance. Over the years it's added more functionality and modules to support school administrators, teachers, parents and students. PowerSchool supports 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 school districts by student enrollment in the U.S., and it sells products in more than 90 countries.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023. This is PowerSchool’s first acquisition in over a year. It is its 19th acquisition in eight years.
In May of last year, PowerSchool completed its deal to buy Chalk.com Education Inc. Chalk.com offers an integrated curriculum analytics platform.
In January of 2022, PowerSchool announced it would acquire Kinvolved Inc., a company that supports schools’ efforts to get students to attend classes using a variety of communications technologies. And in November of 2021, PowerSchool announced its intent to acquire Kickboard Inc., a provider of K-12 education behavior management products.
Prior to Kickboard, PowerSchool had completed 15 acquisitions in five years.
PowerSchool became a publicly traded company through an initial public offering in June 2021 that netted the company $766 million.
