Capstone Partners, a leading international investment banking firm, advised Richardson, a global sales training company and portfolio company of ClearLight Partners, on its acquisition by Sales Performance International (SPI), a portfolio company of Belgian private equity firm Kartesia.
The Capstone team worked assiduously throughout the sale process to meet the stringent demands of our stakeholders. Their expertise and work effort guided us successfully through to close with a great buyer and a top of the range valuation.
Commenting on the transaction, John Ferrara, Capstone Founder & President, noted, “We are pleased to have assisted Richardson and ClearLight Partners with this important milestone. Richardson represents one of the leading brands in the sales training industry and combined with SPI offers clients an unsurpassed digital and classroom learning experience.”
Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, Richardson is widely recognized for its excellence in driving superior sales skill improvement with its Consultative Selling approach and Connected Selling Curriculum™. The curriculum is delivered via a best-in-class, blended learning approach with industry leading instructors and Richardson Accelerate™, the company’s digital learning platform. The platform combines an active learning methodology with an exceptional user experience to drive engagement and adoption of new skills.
John Elsey, CEO of Richardson, and Jürgen Heyman, CEO of SPI, released a joint statement saying, “The sales training industry now has a strategic market leader that can provide scalable, end-to-end learning and enablement solutions that drive measurable sales results. The combination of our two companies provides customers with globally proven sales methodologies, cutting-edge digital learning technology, CRM-based sales execution tools, and, most importantly, a way to objectively measure ROI. We are delighted to join forces to drive long-term, measurable sales results for our customers around the world.”
Discussing the transaction, Laurent Bouvier, a Managing Partner at Kartesia, noted, “The numerous complementary assets between these two industry leaders is compelling and will provide an unrivaled suite of capabilities and global coverage to empower enterprise sales organizations. The combination of SPI and Richardson creates a comprehensive portfolio of classroom and digital learning, technology enablement, and industry expertise to drive improved sales performance and increased growth for global companies.”
Since 2010, Capstone’s Education & Training Group has been one of the most active and awarded teams in the United States, closing more than 55 transactions and earning 30+ industry awards. Capstone’s unique capabilities within the education industry have been utilized by both large corporations for carve-out transactions and over 20 private equity firms for portfolio exits.
