Acquisition Will Address Growing Market Demand for Social Learning, Mobile Learning, Learning Content Management, and the integration of Learning Management and Talent Management
Kenexa (NYSE:KNXA), a global provider of business solutions for human resources, announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with privately-held OutStart, a leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) e-learning solutions and services. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including the receipt of stockholder consent. Kenexa expects to close the transaction shortly. This acquisition, when consummated, will expand Kenexa’s reach into the e-learning market and enable Kenexa to provide a broader and deeper suite of talent management solutions. Kenexa will integrate OutStart’s Learning Management Suite, which includes award-winning social and mobile learning solutions, with Kenexa’s Global Talent Management solutions including its Performance Management suite.
“Kenexa has been working aggressively toward the delivery of a complete, integrated suite of SaaS-based talent management solutions,” said Rudy Karsan, chairman and chief executive officer at Kenexa. “We have the leading talent acquisition solution for large organizations, and we launched our performance management suite last year as well. With the addition of OutStart’s capabilities, Kenexa will be able to offer customers an award-winning suite of SaaS learning solutions plus learning expertise and a great team with more than a decade of experience in learning management.”
“Kenexa made a great decision acquiring OutStart, a full suite, global, SaaS Learning Management Solution provider which has been a market leader in the social and mobile learning space, and one of the pioneers in the LCMS market” said an industry analyst. “This acquisition will give Kenexa both expertise and depth in learning management solutions. With Kenexa’s ability to leverage its award-winning global solutions with a full suite of ITM offerings, the company will be able to provide customers with a unique package of content, services and technology.”
OutStart, which is based in Boston and has offices throughout North America, Europe andAsia, has more than 300 customers ranging from large global organizations to mid-size companies and government entities. The company delivers a portfolio of inter-related mobile, social and learning knowledge solutions, which enables organizations to derive more value from their people assets and more effectively collaborate, converse and learn while increasing their social and knowledge capital.
“Kenexa is a global leader in talent management and we expect to be able to join forces to complete their suite of Integrated Talent Management offerings,” said Massood Zarrabian, CEO of OutStart. “We can bring significant value to Kenexa and its customers by adding our social, mobile, learning management and learning content management capabilities to the Kenexa 2x Integrated Talent Management platform. Our customers will benefit from the depth and breadth of Kenexa’s talent management offering and global support capabilities that will now be available to them.”
The Kenexa 2x platform was designed to integrate all talent management functions and data, including a unified talent record, mobile tools and robust analytics into one single system that provides a consistent user interface, security features and reporting engine while allowing for a customer’s future global expansion. Kenexa’s Recruiting, Onboarding, Performance Management and competency libraries are used to identify employees and candidates’ skill sets as well as their development needs, which can then be met and managed with the learning platform that OutStart brings to Kenexa.