Vendor lineage
Global Knowledge - the largest of them, now inside Skillsoft
Enterprise IT training company, a Cisco Platinum Learning Partner, now part of Skillsoft.
Global Knowledge is an enterprise education company delivering more than three thousand IT and business courses through over eleven hundred subject matter experts, in classrooms, virtual classrooms and digital formats. It is a Cisco Platinum Learning Partner and now trades as Skillsoft Global Knowledge.
Read beside Fast Lane it describes the two ends of the same market. Both hold the same top-tier authorisations from the same manufacturers; one is an independent training specialist, the other now sits inside a company whose main business is a subscription content library.
That difference decides what a course is. A training specialist sells days of an instructor’s time and lives on whether the room was worth attending. A content platform sells access to a catalogue and lives on renewal. Both models deliver the same certification, and they are not the same product, which is the distinction every buyer of technical training eventually discovers and few are told in advance.
The ownership chain is the part worth recording, because it is the industry's in miniature. Global Knowledge Network was founded in 1995 with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe investing that December; MidOcean Partners bought it from them in October 2011 for 145 million dollars; Rhone Group bought it from MidOcean in November 2014; and in a transaction announced in October 2020 and closed in June 2021, a special-purpose acquisition company merged with Skillsoft and then acquired Global Knowledge from Rhone, the whole worth about 1.5 billion dollars, listing the combined company on the New York Stock Exchange. Four private-equity owners in twenty-six years, then a public listing through a blank-cheque vehicle.
Through all of it the operating business stayed what it was: Cary, North Carolina, more than a thousand employees, over a million course deliveries a year to some two hundred thousand technology professionals, and the top-tier authorisations - the company has been named partner of the year by Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, CompTIA and EC-Council in the same year. That is the point the Pluralsight and edX entries make from the other direction. A training company's instructors, authorisations and customers are the durable thing; the name on the ownership line changes every few years, and the people in the classroom rarely notice.
- Cisco - Platinum Learning Partners: Skillsoft Global Knowledge described as the world’s largest dedicated enterprise education company, with more than 3,000 unique IT and business training courses delivered by more than 1,100 subject matter experts, offering classroom, virtual classroom and digital training
- Skillsoft Global Knowledge - Cisco training: a Cisco Platinum Learning Partner, recognised by Cisco as its top-performing global learning partner, delivering Cisco certification paths and accepting Cisco Learning Credits
- Global Knowledge states on its own about page that it has been delivering training since 1995, from a corporate headquarters in Cary, North Carolina; it merged with Skillsoft in June 2021
- Golden, Global Knowledge Training: Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe invested in Global Knowledge Network in December 1995, the year it was founded; MidOcean Partners acquired it on 25 October 2011 for 145 million dollars; Rhone Group acquired it from MidOcean on 10 November 2014; in the transaction announced 13 October 2020, Churchill Capital Corp II, a special-purpose acquisition company, merged with Skillsoft at about 1.3 billion dollars and the combined company then acquired Global Knowledge from Rhone, the total valued at 1.5 billion; the combined company trades on the NYSE as SKIL
- Global Knowledge, about us: established in 1995, more than 1,000 employees worldwide, more than 200,000 technology professionals a year; merged with Skillsoft in June 2021
- ZoomInfo, citing a Business Wire release: Global Knowledge, part of Skillsoft, was named Partner of the Year by Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, CompTIA and EC-Council; headquartered in Cary, North Carolina; established 1995