Ellucian acquisition deal closes

Reston higher ed tech company bought by private equity firms

Published September 15, 2021 by Richard Foster

The acquisition of Reston-based higher education software company Ellucian by investment firms Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners has been completed, the companies announced Wednesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. New York-based Blackstone and Texas-based Vista Equity acquired Ellucian from Texas-based TPG Capital and Los Angeles-based Leonard Green & Partners.

“Today marks an exciting new chapter for Ellucian, our customers and the future of higher education as we welcome new ownership by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners,” said Ellucian President and CEO Laura Ipsen. “Ellucian has achieved several milestones in enabling more than 1,100 customers to modernize in the cloud with the strong support of TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners LP. Blackstone and Vista share our vision for Ellucian’s long-term growth with a focus on accelerating digital transformation, our open SaaS platform and international expansion.”

Founded in 1968, Ellucian provides enterprise resource planning software products such as student information systems, data analytics tools and graduation-tracking platforms for more than 2,700 higher education customers in more than 50 countries representing more than 26 million students.

Blackstone’s financial adviser in the deal was RBC Capital Markets LLC and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP provided legal counsel.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Vista. UBS Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Securities served as financial advisers to TPG Capital, Leonard Green & Partners LP and Ellucian. Ropes & Gray served as legal counsel to Ellucian and Morgan Lewis & Bockius served as legal counsel to the management team.

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