Cloud-based education software vendor PowerSchool is being taken private by investment firm Bain Capital in a $5.6 billion deal.
The announcement comes amid a swathe of take-private deals led by private equity firms seeking a bargain on under-performing enterprise software firms.
PowerSchool is a web-based platform that helps educational institutions manage operations such as enrolment, grades, attendance, and communication with parents and students. It was developed initially inside Apple in 1997, with Apple subsequently spinning the unit out and selling it to Pearson in 2006. Vista Equity Partners then swooped in and acquired PowerSchool in 2015, with Canadian private equity firm Onex joining as investor three years later. The duo pushed PowerSchool into the public markets in 2021, with the NYSE listing giving the company an initial valuation of around $3.5 billion.
In the intervening years, PowerSchool went through the now-familiar pandemic-era peaks and troughs — it surged to a peak valuation of $5.5 billion in late 2021 before falling to $1.8 billion within a year. For the past couple of years it has generally hovered at around the $3.5 billion mark.