UK-headquartered education software firm Scientia has been acquired by Australian software-as-a-service (SaaS) company TechnologyOne during a £12 million deal. The target business provides services including timetabling and scheduling for quite 150 universities within the UK and Australia.
The sale price comes at around a 7x multiple of Scientia’s post-tax profits of £1.7 million for the year ending New Year’s Eve 2019, a year during which the corporate reported revenue of on the brink of £11 million and gross profits of £9.8 million.
The deal includes an initial cash payment of £6 million, with further payments supported Scientia achieving progressive earnouts until fiscal year 2023. the ultimate consideration are going to be paid in cash generated from internal sources.
The deal is TechnologyOne’s first international acquisition and considerably boosts its market share, particularly within the UK. TechnologyOne already claims to supply its software solutions to 75 per cent of Australian education institutions, with Scientia reportedly having around a 50 per cent market share within the UK.
TechnologyOne CEO Edward Chung said: “This acquisition forms a part of our strategic focus to deliver the deepest functionality for education and it’ll accelerate our growth and competitive position within the UK also as have significant benefits within the Australian education market.”
“Scientia’s market leading product Syllabus Plus provides advanced academic timetabling and resource scheduling. Their products provide mission critical software for over 150 leading Universities across the uk , and Australia including the University of St Andrews, University of Exeter, Monash University and therefore the University of Queensland.”
“The acquisition further expands our Global SaaS ERP solution for education . the mixing of the Scientia’s advanced academic timetabling and resource scheduling capabilities, combined with our market leading Student Management, HR & Payroll, Enterprise Asset Management and Finance capabilities, will provide smarter decision-making eliminating underutilisation of space and resources that’s paramount for education across the world during a post-COVID world.”
TechnologyOne’s founder and Executive Chairman Adrian Di Marco added: “This is our company’s first international acquisition and it demonstrates our deep commitment to serving the upper education sector and therefore the UK market.”
“The unique IP and market-leading functionality of Scientia’s product supports our vision of delivering enterprise software that’s incredibly easy to use. We are excited about the opportunities this may bring back both our UK and Australian customers within the coming years.”
