Firm plans to increase education services in emerging markets.
Bureau Report
BANGALORE: The British publishing and education conglomerate Pearson Plc. has completed its acquisition of TutorVista.
The London-listed company in 2009 acquired a 17% stake in Bangalore-headquartered TutorVista and in January 2011 purchased another 59% stake for Rs. 577 crore. It increased its controlling stake to 80% from 76% in the same year. Pearson said on Sunday it has acquired the remaining 20%, reported Live Mint. Pearson did not divulge the deal size.
TutorVista was founded in 2005 by Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh. The company has 1,300 employees across online tutoring, school management, Internet and communication technologies, and test prep and tuition. The husband-wife duo leads TutorVista’s domestic operations but will now give up all management role in the firm.
Pearson has appointed Srikanth B. Iyer as the new chief executive officer. This consolidation and investment says Pearson is quite interested in the Indian education market, said Iyer. “Initially, the plan was to complete the acquisition in three years, and now it has happened a year in advance,” he said.
The company said in a statement that Pearson’s complete takeover of TutorVista forms part of a wider strategy of building significant education services businesses in fast-growing emerging markets.
“We have now 35 schools and we will increase this to 100 schools in a year or so,” Iyer said, reported Live Mint. “Through Pearson’s pedigree, systems and processes, we are now a step closer towards establishing ourselves as the leading technology-enabled education services company in India, offering global standards of learning to Indian students, at affordable prices.”