CeriFi Completes Transformational Acquisitions of Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter Creating the Largest Professional Education Platform Uniquely Serving Learners Across the Financial Services and Legal Sectors

Transaction represents the 13^th and 14^th acquisitions for the Leeds Equity Partners backed portfolio company

NEW YORK, Dec. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CeriFi today announced the acquisitions of Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter from Thomson Reuters Corporation, significantly expanding its professional licensing and continuing education offerings across the accounting, tax and legal sectors.  With these two acquisitions, CeriFi now partners with over 5,000 financial and legal employers and 200 institutions of higher learning that have enabled over 1 million aspiring and practicing individuals to obtain critical professional licensure, enhance their ongoing knowledge base and skills, and to practice more effectively within their professions.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter are the gold standards in professional education, offering high-value learning solutions built on deep subject matter expertise and commitment to service excellence," said Matthew Given, CEO of CeriFi.  "They are the perfect fit for CeriFi and our mission, providing us with an unrivaled product suite serving the needs of professionals throughout their careers."  

"Over the course of our partnership with CeriFi, we have built a strategically focused professional education company that uniquely serves the lifelong education needs of aspiring and practicing professionals within the financial services and legal sectors," said Jacques Galante, Partner at Leeds Equity Partners.  "With the acquisitions of Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter, CeriFi is now distinctively positioned to address those education, training and certification needs while continuing to deliver the best learning outcomes in the industry."

"We are excited to partner with the Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter teams given their track record of delivering mission-critical outcomes to both professionals as well as institutions on an enterprise basis," said Eric Geveda, Managing Director at Leeds Equity Partners.  "As premier providers of continuing professional education, Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter will form strategic parts of our business and product strategy as we seek to broaden our educational relationships with employers and professionals across the financial and legal markets that CeriFi singularly serves."

Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel to Leeds Equity Partners.  Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP served as legal counsel and KPMG Corporate Finance LLC served as financial advisor to Thomson Reuters. 

CeriFi is a diversified education, training and certification provider serving professionals across the financial services market.  CeriFi's broad suite of products delivers mission-critical results to individuals and professionals across the accounting, financial analysis, financial crime, financial planning, financial risk management, insurance, legal, securities licensing and tax industries.  To date, CeriFi has acquired fourteen highly complementary companies, including Dalton Education, Money Education, Keir Financial Education, Pass Perfect, the CFP assets of LoneStar Financial Education, the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists, Bionic Turtle, CPMI, Fast Forward Academy, Spidell Publishing, MarkMeldrum.com, Solomon Exam Prep, Checkpoint Learning and West LegalEdcenter.  For additional information on CeriFi, see http://www.cerifi.com/.

Checkpoint Learning is a provider of continuing professional education solutions for tax and accounting professionals, providing individuals and firms with a wide catalog of courses along with the tools and an online learning platform to manage professional development.  For additional information on Checkpoint Learning, see https://checkpointlearning.thomsonreuters.com/.

West LegalEdcenter provides continuing legal education solutions and services to thousands of legal professionals, maintaining an expansive library of on-demand educational content and knowledge that spans the legal world and manages compliance with legal education requirements.  For additional information on West LegalEdcenter, see  https://westlegaledcenter.com/home/homepage.jsf.

Leeds Equity Partners is a New York-based private equity firm dedicated exclusively to partnering with management teams in the education, training and information services industries ("the Knowledge Industries").  The firm was founded in 1993 and currently manages over $4 billion of capital across a broad spectrum of companies within the Knowledge Industries.  Leeds Equity seeks to leverage its sector-focused expertise and market insights to create long-term value for its partner companies and investors.  For additional information about Leeds Equity Partners, see http://www.leedsequity.com/.

For More Information:
Jacques Galante
Tel. 212-835-2000
Fax: 212-835-2020
www.leedsequity.com

SOURCE Leeds Equity Partners, LLC