Mergers Seen on the Rise in the K-12 Marketplace

Flurry of deals is driven largely by ed-tech sector

The education industry accounted for an estimated $10 billion in mergers and acquisitions last year, with K-12 technology responsible for the second-largest annual increase in transactions of any education sector, a report from an investment banking firm says.

The flurry of transactions last year included major purchases by the education publisher Pearson and the online-course provider K12 Inc. and the acquisition of Blackboard Inc., a learning-management-system company. It matched 2010 activity, but doubled the amount of dollars spent in acquisitions in 2009, according to the report released by New York City-based Berkery Noyes.

Transactions related to K-12 technology continued a steady incline from 16 in 2010 to 24 last year. And the deals were bigger—the nine largest education transactions in 2011 accounted for an estimated $5.66 billion in value, an increase of more than $2 billion...