About LTG: History of LTG

Our history

• 2013

  After Epic plc announces its intention to list on AIM, Learning Technologies Group plc is formed. The newly-combined company is admitted to AIM on 8 November 2013.

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  The beginning of Learning Technologies Group

  In October 2013, Epic plc, a leading international e-learning business announced its intention to list on AIM by way of a reverse takeover of In-Deed plc., a non-trading cash shell. Epic had already established an impressive track record of profit and margin improvement within the fast-growing e-learning sector, with a market-leading position in the UK as well as international operations in Brazil and North America.

  Acquisition of Epic plc

  In November 2013, In-Deed plc acquired Epic plc, for the payment of £1.3 million in cash and the issue of 255 million shares at a price of 5.88 pence per ordinary share, to Epic’s shareholders, led by Chairman Andrew Brode and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Satchell. Andrew Brode and Jonathan Satchell also became Directors and major shareholders in the new combined company, which was renamed Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG). The enlarged Group was admitted to AIM on 8 November 2013.

  LTG’s strategic objective achieved

  When LTG came to AIM in November 2013, the Board set the ambitious target of achieving run-rate revenues of £50 million and EBITDA margins of 20% by the end of 2018. The Board was able to announce that it had achieved these objectives more than one year ahead of expectation.

• 2014

  In April 2014, LTG acquires LINE Communications and also relaunches Epic’s cloud-based authoring tool, Gomo, to the market. In May 2014, LTG acquires PRELOADED. In July 2014, Epic and LINE Communications merge to form LEO Learning.

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  Re-launch of Gomo

  In April 2014, a new version of Gomo (Gomo 2.0), an authoring tool developed in-house by Epic, was released as a commercially available product to huge acclaim. The Gomo learning suite allows learning teams and designers around the world to collaborate, speeding up the e-learning production process and taking the headache away from creating, delivering, analysing and updating content. Epic had been at the vanguard of this fast-moving segment since it developed mobile learning apps for iOS in 2010. The experience derived from creating that early mobile learning content was invaluable and the company quickly recognised that there was a demand for a mobile learning authoring tool to enable customers to create their own  learning content that would work across multiple mobile devices. To meet this demand Epic developed Gomo, originally launched in June 2011, as one of the world’s first cloud-based, HTML5 e-learning authoring tools. In 2013, after three years of work and hundreds of successful projects, the decision was made to re-write Gomo completely and turn the project into a standalone software business as part of LTG.

  Acquisition of LINE Communications

  In April 2014, LTG acquired LINE Communications for a consideration of £9 million (£5.1 million was paid in cash and £3.9 million in new LTG shares issued to the shareholders of LINE). LINE Communications had an established reputation as a designer of fully blended learning solutions, and the combining of the two companies created the undisputed UK leader in the e-learning custom content market. This acquisition marked the first realisation of LTG’s ‘build and buy’ strategy to create a learning technologies business with revenues in excess of £50m. Together, Epic and LINE formed LEO Learning, the largest e-learning services business in the UK with significant presence in the defence, retail, leisure and automotive sectors. The combined business significantly expanded LTG’s scale, capabilities, and client base and created a broader product platform, especially in multi-device learning, as well as providing an attractive platform to make further acquisitions. The senior management team of LINE remained with the business and LINE’s CEO, Piers Lea, was appointed the Chief Strategy Officer of LTG. With the creation of LEO Learning, Dale Solomon, formerly Commercial Director of EPIC, was appointed Chief Operating Officer of LTG. As part of the transaction, LTG raised £8 million by the placing of 50,000,000 shares at 16 pence per ordinary share, both to fund the cash element of the acquisition, as well as to provide additional capital to finance future acquisitions, continue the Group’s organic growth strategy, and for general corporate purposes.

  Acquisition of PRELOADED

  In May 2014, LTG acquired PRELOADED for a cash consideration of £2.3 million, in a strategic move to add the services of a specialist learning games company to the Group, strengthening LTG’s position as a global end-to-end service provider of learning technologies. PRELOADED had a leading reputation as a BAFTA-winning applied games studio, designing games to utilise the power of gaming to engage, educate and communicate in the areas of Learning, Health, Engagement and Training. PRELOADED works with organisations across the education, entertainment, publishing, advertising and broadcasting sectors, with clients including Amplify (a subsidiary of News Corp), Disney, Science Museum Group, Wellcome and the BBC. The cash consideration of £2.3 million was met from the Group’s existing resources and application was made to AIM for the listing of the 3,125,000 Consideration Shares. All of PRELOADED’s senior management team and staff remained with the business. In November 2014, Neil Elton, an experienced listed company finance director, was appointed as Chief Financial Officer of LTG.

• 2015

  In July 2015, LTG acquires Eukleia. In December 2015, LTG, through LEO Learning, announces a landmark Civil Service Learning (CSL) deal alongside our strategic partner KPMG UK LLP.

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  Acquisition of Eukleia Training

  In July 2015, LTG acquired Eukleia, an e-learning provider to the financial services sector, for an initial payment of £7.5m (of which £6.0m was paid in cash and £1.5m in new LTG shares, at a price of 22 pence per share, issued to the shareholders of Eukleia). The acquisition of Eukleia brought with it significant strategic benefit to the Group, giving LTG a presence in the substantial and growing market for Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and significantly expanding its scale and client base. Eukleia’s sector expertise was and is its key strength and LTG looked to use its operational expertise to enhance other Group businesses. In turn, LTG’s international presence would provide Eukleia with access to other GRC markets, in particular the US. Eukleia offers its clients bespoke e-learning, generic e-learning courses, instructor-led training, localisation of training materials and its own learning management system. It is focussed on serving customers in the following sectors: investment banking, retail banking, fund management, commodity trading as well as exchanges and regulators themselves. Customers include HSBC, Barclays, TD Bank, Deutsche Bank and the London Stock Exchange. LTG raised gross proceeds of £7.5m through the issue of 35,714,286 placing shares at the placing price of 21 pence per share to institutional and other investors.  

  Civil Service Learning contract

  In December 2015, LTG announced a landmark deal to design and develop a new learning architecture and to create and deliver blended courses that incorporate a combination of digital, informal and classroom components for the entire UK Civil Service, alongside our strategic partner KPMG UK LLP and other consortium partners.

• 2016

  In February 2016, LTG acquires Rustici Software and a 27.3% equity stake in Watershed LRS.

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  Acquisition of Rustici Software and 27.3% equity stake in Watershed Systems

  In January 2016, in line with the Group’s strategy of establishing an international full-spectrum e-learning business, LTG acquired Rustici Software LLC, the global market leader in digital learning interoperability, for an initial consideration of $26 million as well as a $3 million cash investment for a 27.3% equity stake in Watershed Systems Inc., developer of the next generation learning analytics platform. Rustici Software is the acknowledged global leader in SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model), the de facto industry standard for e-learning interoperability, allowing online learning content and learning management systems to communicate and work together. The acquisition places LTG at the heart of the e-learning industry. Rustici Software is also the co-creator of the next generation of learning interoperability standards, Tin Can API, or xAPI. This global standard was created to capture rich data on every aspect of learning experiences. To utilise and exploit this data, the founders created a separate business, Watershed, which has developed a SaaS-based learning analytics service to fully ascertain the impact and effectiveness of learning programmes. Gathering learning data, and in turn using this data to create more effective learning experiences and tangible business results, is the next significant advance for the learning industry and Watershed is at the forefront of this development.

• 2017

  In March 2017, LTG completes the acquisition of NetDimensions.

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  Strategic Objective

  In September 2017, the LTG Board announced that the ambitious target set in November 2013 of achieving run-rate revenues of £50 million and EBITDA margins of 20% by the end of 2018 had been achieved more than one year ahead of plan.

  Acquisition of NetDimensions

  In March 2017, LTG completed the acquisition of NetDimensions, a global provider of SaaS-based learning, knowledge and performance management solutions with particular focus on highly-regulated industries for £53.6 million. NetDimensions’ award-winning suite of learning products provides companies, government agencies, and other organisations with learning management solutions to personalise learning, share knowledge, foster collaboration and manage compliance programmes for employees, customers, partners and suppliers via mobile learning, social collaboration and other extended enterprise management tools. NetDimensions focusses on highly-regulated industries where operational and compliance requirements are particularly complex e.g. automotive, healthcare, financial services and oil and gas. NetDimensions is one of only a few LMSs that is FDA approved in the United States. The company is based in Hong Kong, with offices in the US, UK, Germany and Australia. In addition to announcing the offer, LTG also announced the conditional placing to raise approximately £46.5 million.

  New strategic objectives

  In October 2017, the Board of LTG announced new strategic objectives: to double run-rate revenues to £100 million and for run-rate adjusted EBIT to exceed £25 million by the end of 2020.

• 2018

  In June 2018, LTG further expands with the acquisition of PeopleFluent and in October 2018, NetDimensions is integrated into PeopleFluent, forming part of a new PeopleFluent Learning suite. Following the PeopleFluent acquisition, LTG launches two former PeopleFluent divisions as stand-alone brands: Affirmity, a supplier of workforce compliance and diversity solutions (October 2018) and VectorVMS, a leading vendor management and contingent workforce solutions provider (December 2018). In November 2018, LTG acquires the remaining 73% of Watershed.

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  Acquisition of PeopleFluent Holdings Corp

  In June 2018, LTG completed the acquisition of PeopleFluent, a leading US provider of cloud-based integrated recruiting, talent management, and compensation management solutions, for a cash consideration of $150 million. The acquisition of a best-of-breed talent management platform provides LTG with multiple avenues of growth. PeopleFluent brings a large installed base of customers, having worked with over 5,100 organisations in over 200 countries and territories – including 50% of the Fortune 100 – to engage employees to drive better business results.

  As well as significantly expanding LTG’s international footprint in line with its stated strategy, the acquisition of PeopleFluent brings new and complementary capabilities to the Group.

  Learning and talent are closely aligned. Integrated talent and learning solutions will become vital as the pressure increases on corporations to attract, develop and retain people. The acquisition was funded by a placing of 86,734,694 new ordinary shares, raising approximately £85 million, and financing up to c.£35 million (c.$48 million) in incremental debt financing.

  Following the acquisition, two high-performing divisions within PeopleFluent are launched as stand-alone operating businesses:

  • VectorVMS: vendor management and contingent workforce solutions provider
  • Affirmity: a supplier of workforce compliance and diversity solutions

• 2019

  2019 sees LTG's portfolio expand to 10 companies with the acquisition of recruiting platform, Breezy HR, and the launch of Instilled, a Learning Experience Platform (LXP), powered by Group expertise and technology at Gomo, Watershed and Rustici Software.

• 2020

  In March 2020, LTG acquired Open LMS, the largest commercial Moodle provider in the world. Moodle is an open-source learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments.

  In August, Eukleia integrated with LEO Learning, rebranding itself as LEO GRC, LEO's specialist division of Governance, Risk and Compliance training solutions.

  In September, LTG acquired Patheer and merged the company into PeopleFluent to form a new product called Talent Mobility. LTG also announced the acquisition of eCreators, Australia’s largest regional Moodle provider. eCreators will be integrated into LTG’s market-leading Moodle business, Open LMS. In November 2020, LTG completed the acquisition of JCA Solutions, a Rustici Software competitor. JCA Solutions will be integrated directly into Rustici.

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  Acquisition of Open LMS from Blackboard 

  The acquisition of Open LMS (asset carve-out), brings several benefits to LTG, namely:

  • A stable and profitable business with strong growth potential, ideally suited to act as the foundation stone for LTG’s ‘buy and build’ strategy, developing the Moodle market’s dominant player further
  • Global customer reach and scale – Open LMS is the first Moodle business to have a truly global, not regional focus, providing an excellent platform for growth
  • The ability to meet the needs of existing LTG clients who are seeking Moodle solutions, significantly enhancing LTG’s current offering with the potential for improved margin performance
  • Potential for LTG to resell other Blackboard products through Open LMS, providing attractive additional revenue streams
  • Ability to scale very efficiently as a SaaS product, allowing for a high-quality experience for thousands of clients and millions of users
  • Ability to access a new customer segment through education (Higher Education/Further Education and, to a lesser extent, K12/schools)
  • Access to a share of the Learning Management System (LMS) market that LTG has not yet been able to fully explore with its proprietary enterprise offerings

• 2021

  In January 2021, LTG announced the acquisition of Reflektive, an agile performance management software company. The deal, which closed in February, expands PeopleFluent’s capabilities through the addition of enhanced engagement and analytics tools. In the same month, LTG made two further acquisitions: PDT Global, a UK-based diversity, equity and inclusion training and consultancy firm, and Bridge, a mid-enterprise learning and talent software offering. Both acquisitions expand LTG’s reach and capabilities in coveted markets.

  In October 2021, LTG announced regulatory approval and the successful completion of the acquisition of GP Strategies, a leading global provider of workplace change, learning development and talent transformation programs, headquartered in the US and with a presence in 29 countries. The addition of GP Strategies enables the expansion of LTG’s international footprint, blue-chip client base and cross-sell strategy, and expansion of deep industry expertise and sector specialisation.

• 2022

  In September 2022, it was announced that GP Strategies’ specialist HR software implementation division would launch as its own stand-alone operating business within GP, called Effective People. In November 2022, LTG announced GP Strategies as the Group’s flagship business and the lead market-facing brand representing LTG’s newly combined strength.

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  Other 2022 highlights include:

  • Gomo announced as a new product at Bridge, supplementing Bridge’s existing content authoring capabilities with more robust and desirable capabilities
  • Instilled becoming a product feature at Bridge (now known as Bridge Advanced Video or BAV)
  • PeopleFluent’s Talent Mobility software (formerly Patheer) to become a new product at Bridge, launching in early 2023

• 2023

  In January 2023, as part of LTG’s new go-to-market strategy, LEO Learning and PDT Global integrate into GP Strategies’ specialist learning experience and diversity, equity and inclusion divisions respectively.