Wiley Agrees to Sell Its OPM Business to Academic Partnerships

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The big news today is that we finally know who is buying Wiley’s OPM business (Wiley University Services), and it’s another one of the big OPM companies, Academic Partnerships. I plan on doing additional research for a more in-depth article, but this news is worth sharing for the basic information.

• The deal is expected to close in early 2024.

• The purchase price is $110 million cash plus up to $40 million in earnouts (based on performance) plus 10% of the shares of Academic Partnerships.

• The combined company will have 125 college / university partners with hundreds of online programs.

• Academic Partnerships has a different client mix than Wiley, focusing more on regional public universities, whereas Wiley has more of a broad mix of clients.

• Wiley is a publicly-traded company, and Academic Partnerships is owned by private equity firm Vistria Group after its 2019 acquisition.

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