DigitalThink rides into India on the back of LearningByte acquisition

R Ravichandran in Hyderabad

DigitalThink Inc, the leading US-based e-learning business solution provider, has entered India by acquiring another US-based company LearningByte International and its Indian subsidiary, in a $60 million stock deal recently.

The acquisition includes LearningByte’s Indian subsidiary which has two centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore with a total manpower of 160, including course developers and e-learning experts.
LearningByte International is headed by Dr Rajiv Tandon, who is the president and CEO of the company.

DigitalThink, a Nasdaq listed company, has issued approximately 4.5 million shares in this transaction, A Banu Prakash, chief financial officer, LearningByte India, told The Financial Express. LearningByte International is expected to do a business of $10 million in the current fiscal, he added. The LearningByte’s proven and scalable course development methodology as well as a large library combined with a team of experts prompted DigitalThink to acquire LearningByte and its subsidiary, he said. The combination of DigitalThink’s industry-leading e-learning web-based solutions with LearningByte’s proven methodologies for producing quality custom courseware would provide Indian customers with a range of options, Mr Prakash said.

While the acquistion process of the US parent has been completed in October, the process on the Indian arms is expected to be completed in the next two months’ time. The RBI and FIPB approvals have been sought for transferring shares held by LearningByte to DigitalThink, Mr Prakash said.