About the KKR Instructure Acquisition Agreement

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Just over two months ago we noted that Reuters was reporting that Instructure - makers of the Canvas LMS - was for sale again. For background, private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired Instructure in early 2020 from the public market for $2 billion, and in mid 2021 Instructure held its second public offering, valued at roughly $2.9 billion. While Instructure is a publicly-traded company, Bravo owns roughly 84% of the equity, so it is a controlled public company.

Then in early July, Reuters reported that there were two private equity firms still bidding for Instructure - Francisco Partners (owners of Civitas, VitalSource, Renaissance, and Follett) and KKR (owners of Education Perfect and a Filipino higher education group). Last week, the rumors were confirmed when Instructure announced a deal to be acquired by KKR for $4.8 billion all cash (meaning that Thoma Bravo will completely be bought out with no rollover). When you factor in the additional acquisitions (e.g. Parchment for $835 million), this comes out to roughly a 17% increase from the 2021 IPO valuation.

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