HR Tech tuck-ins & public company earnings saved by M&A

NOTE: We are a couple weeks behind so this week you will see multiple M&A briefs from LongBoard!

Here are 6 deals announced in the second half of May which include: several public companies posting growth due to acquisitions, HR Tech acquiring new business lines, and some staffing tuck-in deals.

May 20th-24th Deals

Staffing Future acquires 3DIQ - HR Tech.
Talent acquisition and hiring is becoming more visual. So recruitment firms need to present candidates in a visually compelling way to stand out from the sea of other candidate submittals. Adding 3DIQ’s dynamic candidate presentation tools is one way Staffing Future is working to give their staffing clients an edge in a down and highly competitive market.

PowerToFly acquires Skillcrush - Upskilling.
PowerToFly is verticalizing their talent supply with the acquisition of SkillCrush. They now recruit diverse professionals and help upskill diverse and underrepresented groups to make them better fitting candidates. 

Freelance.com revenue improve via acquisitions - Talent Platform.
Freelance.com would have posted flat revenue had it not been for several acquisitions they completed last Fall that gave them a 24% boost in revenue YoY. Without these additions, organic revenue declined. With a downward trend in their core business, multiple M&A integrations on their plate, and lots of uncertainty with the 2H'24, there’s a lot to be nervous about here. 

Cornerstone acquires SkyHive - Workforce data.
Large enterprises concerned about waste, low productivity among staff, and building teams that will meet future needs, probably love SkyHive’s value prop. SkyHive can indicate and/or predict which skill sets are in highest demand AND assess your employees for how their skills match that demand. Cornerstone is all about workforce development, so this deal seems great. But man does enterprise-wide skill assessment projects sound like a massive undertaking.  

Zen Educate raises $37M then acquires Aquinas Education - Education Staffing.
After a $37M raise, Zen Educate acquires a teacher recruitment platform. Education-based recruitment platforms do not scream "high-growth" or "scale" like VC's usually target but this tuck-in of Aquinas expands their UK presence and get’s some revenue (and hopefully earnings) in the door. This fits with the theme of talent platforms and recruitment service providers coming together in M&A.

Premier Health increases revenue after acquisition - Healthcare staffing.
The acquisition of this healthcare staffing firm, Solutions Staffing, was completed Fall 2023 but the impact of this deal (112% increase in revenue YoY) was just reported in Premiers Q2 earnings. Not many staffing firms posted growth in 2023. Most of the ones that did followed the playbook of “growth via M&A.”

Did you read about any other deals we may have missed? If so, please reply with details. LongBoard will review and add our commentary in our next M&A brief!

ALSO, if you ever want your company name to appear in one of these headlines, The LongBoard Group would love to help!

More deals to come.

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