LOS ANGELES, February 1, 2010 – Marlin Equity Partners (“Marlin”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired the assets of CompassLearning, Inc. (“Compass” or the “Company”), a leading educational technology company that provides comprehensive supplemental curriculum software to educators and students in grades K-12. Marlin acquired the assets of Compass from The Readers Digest Association, Inc. through a bankruptcy auction in a Section 363 sale. Compass is headquartered in Austin, TX and currently serves 11 million students in 20,000 schools nationwide.
“In Marlin Equity Partners, CompassLearning gains a partner that shares its vision for dynamic growth in the educational software market,” stated its President, Eric Loeffel. “This partnership comes as we are seeing a convergence of student interest, teacher interest, and technological innovation that will generate a real revolution in educational software. We plan to be in the forefront of this revolution with new and enhanced products, a richer curriculum, and great customer support.”
Nick Kaiser, a Partner with Marlin Equity Partners, added, “We are extremely enthusiastic about the opportunities we see in the educational software market and believe CompassLearning has established a leadership position among its peers. Given our investment focus, software expertise and financial capacity, we are confident we will bring the experience and resources needed to fully support CompassLearning’s comprehensive growth initiatives.”
About Marlin Equity Partners
Marlin Equity Partners is a Los Angeles, California-based private investment firm with over $1 billion of capital under management. The firm is focused on providing corporate parents, shareholders and other stakeholders with tailored solutions that meet their business and liquidity needs in special situations. Marlin invests in businesses across multiple industries that are in the process of undergoing varying degrees of operational, financial or market-driven change where its capital base, industry relationships and extensive network of operational resources significantly strengthens a company’s outlook and enhances value. Since its inception, Marlin, through its group of funds and related companies, has successfully completed over 30 acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.marlinequity.com.
About CompassLearning
CompassLearning is a leading educational software company that provides comprehensive supplemental curriculum software to educators and students in grades K-12. Founded in 1969, Compass’ suite of software and services provides multiple curriculum products across key subjects by grade level. The Company’s flagship product, Odyssey, creates a personalized and engaging learning path for each student using flash-based activities to teach and review concepts. In addition, the award-winning solutions enable teachers to assess student performance, diagnose strengths and weaknesses and prescribe specific instruction. Compass is headquartered in Austin, TX and currently serves 11 million students in 20,000 schools nationwide. For more information, please visit www.compasslearning.com.
For additional information, please contact Peter Spasov at (310) 364-0100 or via e-mail at pspasov@marlinequity.com.