1st Half 2022 Education Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2022 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest transaction year-to-date was Veritas Capital’s acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), a provider of K-12 core, supplemental, intervention, and professional learning solutions, for $2.67 billion.

The most active acquirer in 1st Half 2022 either directly or through an affiliated business was The Riverside Company with five industry deals: Actando SA, Yukon Training, DSG Consulting, Augusoft, and Signal Vine.

K-12 Media and Tech was the industry’s most active market segment in 1st Half 2022 with 52 transactions.

1ST HALF 2022 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2022 decreased by two percent over 2nd Half 2021, from 218 to 213.

In terms of acquirer type, strategic volume improved four percent on a half year basis, from 137 to 143. Private equity volume fell 14 percent, from 81 to 70.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2022 declined 30 percent over 2nd Half 2021, from $10.51 billion to $7.36 billion.

The median revenue multiple from 2nd Half 2021 to 1st Half 2022 remained constant at 2.2x.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 1,108 Education transactions between 2020 and 1st Half 2022, of which 210 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $49.34 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project the values of 898 undisclosed transactions to be $8.45 billion, totaling $57.79 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2020 to 1st Half 2022 with enterprise values in the $10-$20 million range had a median revenue multiple of 1.5x, whereas those in the $20-$160 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 2.8x and those above $160 million had a median revenue multiple of 6.1x.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 2.5x revenue and 9.2x EBITDA.