Wisconsin Rapids-based Renaissance Learning will be purchased for $1.1 billion by Hellman & Friedman, a private equity firm. Renaissance has about 1,000 total employees, including about 60 in Madison. Its central Wisconsin headquarters, with about 600 employees, will reportedly remain intact after the deal is completed, which is expected sometime in the second quarter.
In 2011, Permira Funds bought the company, which had been publicly traded, and just recently, Renaissance received a $40 million investment from Google Capital, a new growth equity fund launched by Google. Renaissance Learning specializes in online testing of students’ reading and math skills.
