Ellucian Announces Agreement to Acquire Tribal Group plc

Acquisition to expand Ellucian's global reach in key markets and accelerate adoption of SaaS for tertiary education institutions worldwide

RESTON, Va., Oct. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellucian, a leading tertiary education technology solutions provider, today announced an agreement to acquire Tribal Group plc ("Tribal"), a UK-based enterprise resource planning ("ERP") and customer relationship management ("CRM") software and services provider to the education sector. The all-cash offer values Tribal's entire issued, and to be issued, ordinary share capital at approximately £159 million on a fully diluted basis and implies an enterprise value of £172 million. The offer is unanimously recommended by the Board of Tribal and is pending regulatory approvals and approval from Tribal shareholders.

Together with Tribal, Ellucian will enhance and expand its global product capabilities, leading to a broader set of modern technology solutions that enable institutions to deliver an exceptional student experience. In addition, the combination will allow Ellucian to provide improved product and support across geographies while expanding the company's customer base.

"Tribal is in clear alignment with Ellucian's strategy, purpose and values, and this is an exciting opportunity to expand our combined reach as we power tertiary education so institutions can empower student success," said Laura Ipsen, CEO, Ellucian. "We recognize Tribal's notable transformation journey to cloud and are eager to work with Tribal's strong leadership and talented team. With this investment, we can accelerate our impact in large and important educational markets around the world." 

"The combination of Ellucian and Tribal will create a sophisticated international provider of innovative technologies for tertiary education across North America, Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa," said Jeff Dinski, Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer, Ellucian. "Customers worldwide will benefit from an enhanced platform of modern solutions with deeper functionality, improved support services, and enhanced product development efforts."

"Joining Ellucian will create an enhanced platform which will leverage the strengths of both businesses across the complementary geographies in which Tribal and Ellucian operate for the benefit of our customers, enabling the provision of a broader set of solutions," said Richard Last, the Chairman of Tribal. "I believe that the combined group will also provide opportunities for our employees to play a significant role in delivering value for our customers."

Bank of America Merrill Lynch served as lead financial advisor and RBC Capital Markets, LLC also served as financial advisor to Ellucian. Kirkland & Ellis International LLP and Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider served as legal advisors to Ellucian. 

William Blair International, Limited served as financial advisor to Tribal and Taylor Wessing served as legal advisor to Tribal.

Full details can be found in the announcement: www.ellucian.com/investors/cash-offer  

About Ellucian
Ellucian powers innovation for tertiary education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 22 million students. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

About Tribal Group Plc
Tribal is a leading provider of education software and services. Its portfolio of software products includes Student Information Systems, which enables education institutions to manage the complete student lifecycle. Tribal also provides a broad range of education services covering quality assurance, peer review, benchmarking and improvement and student surveys that provide the leading global benchmarks for student experience. Working with tertiary education schools, Government and State bodies, training providers and employers, in over 55 countries, Tribal's mission is to empower the world of education with products and services that underpin student success.

Media Contact:
Lindsay Stanley, Ellucian
[email protected]
+1 (703) 259-2854

SOURCE Ellucian