The Wisconsin Rapids-based Renaissance Learning will get its day in court next month in a hearing on its sale to a London private equity firm, according to a report in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.
In the transaction, which is subject to a shareholder lawsuit, the educational technology provider became a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based Permira Funds.
The hearing is scheduled for April 24 in Clark County Circuit Court.
In an attempt to stop the sale, Data Key Partners, a New York-based shareholder of Renaissance, filed the lawsuit. The suit alleges the Renaissance board breached its fiduciary duties in recommending that shareholders approve the sale to Permira instead of to Bloomington, Minn.-based Plato Learning.
Plato had made the higher financial offer, but court documents indicate the Renaissance board sold the company to Permira out of concern that a sale to Plato ownership might “negatively affect the Wisconsin Rapids area.”
