A group including General Atlantic and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have bid 17.2 billion kroner ($1.7 billion) in cash for Kahoot! ASA, a Norwegian educational-tech company.
(Bloomberg) — A group including General Atlantic and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have bid 17.2 billion kroner ($1.7 billion) in cash for Kahoot! ASA, a Norwegian educational-tech company.
Kahoot investors will be offered 35 kroner per share by the consortium, which also includes Kahoot’s Chief Executive Officer Eilert Hanoa and the Lego billionaire family’s Kirkbi Invest, the company said in a statement Friday. The bid represents a premium of 12% to the company’s closing share price on Thursday, and the offer is 33% above the three-month volume weighted average price.Â
The 10-year-old tech company saw a surge in revenue during the Covid-19 lockdowns, which closed schools and pushed coursework online. Kahoot also expanded through acquisitions, snapping up Clever, one of the most popular single sign-on platforms for US schools, and math app maker DragonBox in the last few years.
Kahoot’s shares jumped 11% to 34.48 kroner at 2:12 p.m. in Oslo trading on Friday. The stock had gained 61% this year through Thursday’s close.Â
General Atlantic has been exploring ways to boost its stake in the Oslo-based company, which offers educational games, quizzing tools and other learning apps, Bloomberg reported previously. The investment firm agreed in September to buy SoftBank Group Corp.’s entire 15% stake in the digital learning platform and is already Kahoot’s largest shareholder.
Read More: General Atlantic Is Said to Eye More Control of Kahoot
The company’s board, excluding members who had a conflict of interest, unanimously recommended the offer to Kahoot’s shareholders. Investors with about 34% of Kahoot’s outstanding shares have committed to the deal, the company said.Â
Â
–With assistance from Ben Scent.
(Updates with additional details throughout)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.