NIIT & Element K : Analyst Views

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Analyst Review: NIIT and Element K Consummate the Perfect Marriage

By Doug Harward, Founder and CEO of TrainingOutsourcing.com

On July 27, global learning services provider NIIT, headquartered in New Delhi, India announced that it had acquired Rochester, N.Y. based Element K. Combined the companies will have more than 3,000 employees throughout the world with revenues in excess of US $250 million. Instead of terming this an acquisition, I like to view it more as the perfect marriage of two complementary organizations. The union of the two companies has the ability to become one of the most powerful companies in the corporate and educational marketplace.
This is the second merger this year among "Top 20 Companies in the Training Outsourcing Industry" and definitely the most significant in terms of global reach. In June, ACS announced it was acquiring Ernst and Young's Intellinex Learning Services division. Although each deal has great importance to the industry, the NIIT - Element K deal combines two companies with strong international impact. NIIT has long been known for its content development and learning technology capabilities with a strong presence in India, China, Europe, and Africa, and a growing presence in North America. Element K's prominence has primarily been in North America through managed services for e-learning and learning technologies. Their KnowledgeHubTM solution has been well received along with their award winning suite of over 3500 online courses.

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