Pearson plc (LON:PSON) has announced it has completed the acquisition of Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, LLC (‘PDRI’), a trusted provider of workforce assessment services. PDRI has significant expertise in providing assessment solutions to the U.S. federal government, one of the largest employers in the U.S. with more than 4 million employees. This acquisition further expands Pearson’s portfolio, accelerating the Company’s strategy to capture new market opportunities and grow its presence with large employers. PDRI will now operate under the ‘PDRI by Pearson’ brand name.
Founded in 1975, PDRI has built a strong reputation for delivering quality talent assessments, including tailored assessments to support hiring practices for U.S. federal government agencies. The acquisition significantly expands Pearson’s services to U.S. federal agencies, including through PDRI’s partnership with the Office of Personnel Management to deliver the USA Hire platform. The USA Hire platform serves more than 40 agencies and is utilised to assess more than 500,000 applicants annually.
PDRI will join the Company’s Assessment & Qualifications division. Within this division, Pearson and PDRI already have an established, strong working relationship, partnering to deliver assessments to federal jobseekers at Pearson VUE test centers. This acquisition unlocks synergies between the Company and PDRI, whilst bringing new capabilities for PSON to explore as the company grows its long-standing enterprise learning presence.
The consideration for PDRI represents an enterprise value of $190m, which has been funded from Pearson’s existing cash and available liquidity. PDRI has a highly attractive financial profile with an impressive revenue growth opportunity, good margins and strong cash flow conversion. In the year ending December 2021, PDRI recognised revenues of $33m and delivered EBITDA CAGR of 12% from 2018-2021. The acquisition will be accretive to growth and margins for our Assessment & Qualifications division, as well as driving returns for shareholders.
Andy Bird, Chief Executive, said: “We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of PDRI, which provides an excellent opportunity to expand our reach in this strategically important market for Pearson and our assessments business. Pearson and PDRI share a culture and commitment of serving trusted, secure, and innovative assessment solutions to major employers and millions of people looking to establish and grow their careers. We look forward to welcoming the PDRI team to Pearson and together we will be fully focused on executing against the growth opportunity ahead.”
Elaine Pulakos, Chief Executive Officer of PDRI said: “We are excited to be joining Pearson and look forward to becoming part of the growth strategy. Pearson has a reputation for quality in the assessments field and combined with our proven assessment and talent solutions, we see significant opportunity to further improve our products and reach more customers collectively. Our attention is now firmly directed towards delivering on our growth ambitions.”
