You want to sell your e-learning company? Then it is good to know what the acquisition market in the field of e-learning companies looks like. It is safe to say that in recent years the e-learning scene has been in a growth spurt. This obviously has an impact on the value of businesses in this sector.
There is explosive demand for digital products, but the other side of the coin is also visible. Shortages in the labor market and a shift underway from hourly billing to other revenue models, such as subscriptions.
There are many ways to value a business. A common method of expressing the value of a business is "a factor x gross annual profit." This factor is also called multiple and another designation for gross annual profit is EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization).
In the IT services sector - which includes an e-learning company - an indicative EBITDA multiple range of 5.9 to 7.2 is currently used, according to the Brookz Takeover Barometer. The average EBITDA multiple across all SME sectors is 4.90.
The valuation of a business is often the starting point for negotiations between buyer and seller. The outcome of these negotiations is the final sales price. So valuation and price are two different quantities. Besides valuation, the price is also determined by possible scarcity in the market, bargaining power of the parties, the strategic value of the business for the buyer and possible synergy effects for the buyer (cost savings, purchasing advantages).
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Want to buy a business or sell a business in the IT Services & Software Development sector? With this Brookz Sector Monitor, we want to present buyers and sellers with facts, figures and an outlook that provide insight into the number of transactions, the value development of businesses and the latest trends and developments in the IT Services & Software Development sector. Because in any buying or selling process, thorough preparation provides peace of mind, overview and structure.
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There are many startups in the industry every year, which also makes many businesses with only one person working visible. Digitization has been around for years, but really blossomed at the time of the pandemic. Because of this, there will be and will be more demand for digital forms of training, because pen and paper is effectively a thing of the past.
In figures, the number of e-learning companies looked as follows in 2024(CBS):
With this online training from Brookz you are optimally prepared to largely sell your business yourself: 25 Powerpoint videos, a comprehensive valuation report, legal model contracts, handy templates, checklists and expert support. Plus 50% discount on listing your business on Brookz!
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A number of trends and developments will inevitably cause changes over the next few years, but also offer e-learning companies many growth and acquisition opportunities:
ICT businesses, especially e-learning businesses, are scalable. As a result, constraints related to staff shortages and other variables, such as location, time or money, are not so easily encountered. Investors find this attractive, according to Rabobank, leading to several consolidations in this industry for the first time in 2020.
By automating processes through technology and then integrating them, new insights or even business models form. Scale and diversification are interesting factors for businesses investing in e-learning or IT in general.
Where previously pen, paper and textbooks were the basics, this has already been transformed to blended learning. However, this variant has also become obsolete with the advent of 100% online learning. Whatever the student wants, through games, animations, podcasts, apps and AI, anything is possible. From listening to reading to interactive to video.
In the future, data will be used to tailor materials to students' study preferences. According to ABN Amro, personalized lessons will lead to maximum returns.
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