SAP SE and Francisco Partners (FP) today announced that FP has signed a definitive agreement with SAP America Inc. under which Francisco Partners will acquire SAP Litmos (Litmos) from SAP.
Litmos is an established leader in the learning management system market. FP is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses. SAP America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP SE.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022 and is subject to customary regulatory clearances. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“SAP is committed to enabling every organization to become intelligent, networked and sustainable by bringing together data, technology and best practices,” said Meg Bear, President and Chief Product Officer, SAP SuccessFactors. “As a result of SAP’s ongoing company-wide portfolio review, we determined that the value propositions and functionalities of the SAP SuccessFactors Learning solution and SAP Litmos solutions overlap. We are confident that the best opportunity for Litmos to provide growth and innovation for its customers, employees and business is to operate as a stand-alone company. Francisco Partners will be able to provide Litmos the necessary investment, focus and experience to continue to realize its ongoing growth.”
Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and long-standing investors in the technology industry. Francisco Partners has experience in the education and human capital technology market and its investments have focused on companies that provide the best possible products for its customers, partners and managers. Francisco Partners also has extensive experience partnering with corporations to execute divisional carve-outs with transactions such as IBM’s Watson Health business (now Merative) and Discovery Inc.’s Discovery Education business.
“We are tremendously excited to partner with Litmos to further unlock its growth potential and deliver even more to its customers and partners,” said Jason Brein and Christine Wang, Partners at Francisco Partners. “As an independent company partnering with FP, Litmos will have more flexibility to focus all of its investments and operations on customer success and increase its customer happiness by augmenting platform capabilities, proprietary content library and third-party integrations.”
The current Litmos leadership team will continue in similar roles in the new stand-alone company, serving existing customers, such as corporations, OEMs and technology partners.
