Roper eyes U.S. instructor scarcity in $3.7 bln deal for Frontline Schooling

Aug 30 (Reuters) – Roper Applied sciences (ROP.N) stated on Tuesday it might purchase academic software program maker Frontline Schooling in a $3.7 billion deal to bolster its presence within the kindergarten to twelfth grade market at a time of instructor scarcity in the US.

The deal will complement Roper’s “Horizon” product catering to the K12 section and marks a deeper push by the corporate to reposition itself as a software program agency by acquisitions. learn extra (https://reut.rs/3cwnlZm)

Roper is shopping for Frontline from technology-focused personal fairness agency Thoma Bravo, which acquired the corporate in 2017 for an undisclosed worth.

Pandemic-related exhaustion and low pay have prompted a instructor scarcity in the US. Schooling software program firms are additionally benefiting from greater demand from college districts ramping up their investments in cloud-based software program options after the pandemic.

“This market, like so many others, is one present process vital digital transformation,” Roper Chief Govt Neil Hunn stated on a name.

Frontline’s hiring software program will assist college districts recruit, rent, practice and develop employees, as effectively take care of absence or substitute instructor administration, executives stated.

Roper, which lately divested its legacy industrial companies, will use money and debt to fund the deal. The deal has a internet buy value of about $3.38 billion and is predicted to shut within the fourth quarter.

“We’ve been anticipating a giant deal, with public market software program valuations promoting down, and the divestment of the industrials companies,” Bernstein analyst Brendan Luecke stated.

Frontline’s administration staff will proceed to steer from its Malvern, Pennsylvania headquarters. Its identify, manufacturers and workplace places won’t change, the corporate stated.

J.P. Morgan Securities, Jefferies and Macquarie Capital served as monetary advisers to Thoma Bravo and Frontline Schooling.

Reporting by Chavi Mehta and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Sriraj Kalluvila

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.