Renaissance Acquires myON to Expand Digital Literacy Solutions

Renaissance and myON come together to deliver a shared vision of literacy growth for all students

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (March 19, 2018) – Renaissance^®, a leader in pre-K–12 learning analytics, today announced the acquisition of myON^®, a leading provider of digital literacy solutions, from Francisco Partners.

myON’s expansive digital content library and literacy tools, paired with Renaissance’s complementary reading practice and assessment offerings, enables Renaissance to deliver a comprehensive, innovative suite of reading solutions to educators and students worldwide. myON provides students with unlimited, simultaneous access to a personalized library of more than 13,000 digital books at home or in the classroom. myON also provides daily news articles written for students with myON News^™, including French and Spanish content.

“myON and Renaissance are coming together to accelerate the realization of our shared vision of instilling the love of reading in students around the world,” said Daniel Hamburger, CEO of Renaissance. “We look forward to working with the talented team at myON to deliver on this vision by providing students with unlimited access to literature that is relevant and timely. We have long admired myON and see it as the perfect accompaniment to Renaissance Accelerated Reader^®.”

“Renaissance and myON are truly connected by our history of providing literacy solutions that encourage kids to experience the joy of reading while developing their literacy skills at the same time,” said Todd Brekhus, president of myON at Renaissance. “We are thrilled to work alongside the team at Renaissance to evolve our products and provide children with ‘just right’ books that foster a passion for reading and continued academic growth. We also look forward to leveraging the best-in-class Renaissance Star Assessments^® to further deepen and enhance our measurement capabilities, giving teachers robust data and insights to improve student literacy outcomes.”

Together, Renaissance and myON serve more than 20 million students worldwide. In addition to the organizations’ alignment on providing students with unlimited access to texts, Renaissance and myON are focused on providing districts with real-time data to measure students’ reading achievement and growth. myON and Renaissance will initially roll out solution packages that include Accelerated Reader and myON, while continuing to offer products on a standalone basis.

“It has been a privilege to support myON’s growth. We love meeting passionate advocates for myON in schools around the world, and we wish the team well in its next chapter with Renaissance,” said Jason Brein, Partner at Francisco Partners.

myON was previously a division of Capstone, a publisher of children’s books and digital reading products and services. Capstone has also worked with Renaissance as a content publisher for Accelerated Reader. The myON platform will continue to provide over 6,000 quality titles from Capstone.

Bob Coughlan, principal and co-owner of Capstone shares in the excitement of the news, saying, “Capstone is proud to be an integral partner for myON and Renaissance. We are excited to see these two great, complementary organizations come together. We look forward to seeing how together we will impact literacy for children worldwide.”

As part of the organizations’ integration, Renaissance welcomes Todd Brekhus to its executive leadership team. Todd will report to Daniel Hamburger as the president of myON at Renaissance and will be focused on product development and the integration of the two organizations.

Macquarie Capital served as an advisor to Renaissance in the transaction.

About Renaissance

Renaissance^® is the leader in pre-K–12 learning analytics—enabling teachers, curriculum creators, and educators to drive phenomenal student growth. Renaissance’s solutions help educators analyze, customize, and plan personalized learning paths for students, allowing time for what matters—creating energizing learning experiences in the classroom. Founded by parents, upheld by educators, and enriched by data scientists, Renaissance knows learning is a continual journey—from year to year and for a lifetime. Our data-driven, personalized solutions are currently used in over one-third of U.S. schools and more than 70 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.renaissance.com.

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