Pearson grows testing service with Certiport
PEARSON yesterday announced it has purchased Certiport, which provides testing and certification services for leading IT companies, for $140m (£87.6m) in cash from Spire Capital Partners.
Pearson, which owns the world’s biggest education business as well as the Financial Times and Penguin Books, said the move would expand the product range and geographical reach of its professional testing business.
US-based Certiport makes more than 60 per cent of its revenues outside North America and is particularly strong in Asia and the Middle East, in line with Pearson’s strategy of expansion in emerging markets.
Its top customers include Microsoft, Adobe and Hewlett-Packard, and it has a network of 12,000 testing centres in more than 150 countries.
Pearson administers millions of tests each year for the private and public sectors in areas ranging from construction to mathematics. The business is a key driver of its professional education unit, which increased its sales by 15 per cent to £382m last year, representing an estimated seven per cent of Pearson’s group sales.