CEB Acquires KnowledgeAdvisors

ARLINGTON, Va., March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CEB (NYSE: CEB), the leading member-based advisory company, today announced it has acquired KnowledgeAdvisors, the pioneer and leading provider of analytics solutions for talent development professionals, for approximately $52 million. By combining KnowledgeAdvisors' extensive learning benchmarks and analytics platform with CEB's insight, best practice and predictive analytics on talent acquisition, assessment and development, the company is uniquely positioned to help senior executives optimize investments that drive development ROI and ultimately corporate performance.

Corporations spend an estimated $145 billion annually^[i] on training initiatives, but more than half of those dollars fail to result in tangible returns, with performance gains from learning investments estimated at less than 10 percent. The KnowledgeAdvisors Metrics that Matter® analytics platform with more than one billion comparative benchmarks, coupled with robust reporting and deep science around learning measurement methodology, allow Chief HR Officers and Chief Learning Officers to drive substantial returns on their massive investments in development and training.

Talent-focused organizations already see immediate value in linking CEB's depth on what competencies drive performance with KnowledgeAdvisors' ability to measure the effectiveness of employee development.  "Being both a KnowledgeAdvisors and a CEB customer, we see powerful synergies coming to fruition for us.  For example, the pairing of CEB insights and KnowledgeAdvisors' analytic capabilities and learning benchmarks will be a powerful package for organizations like ours looking to make high-impact leadership development decisions in a data-driven manner," said Alex Brody, Head of Learning Analytics at Southern California Edison.  

"We've long prescribed that companies must apply the same rigor to managing their people as they do their balance sheet, and making investments proven to build workforce competencies can have a material impact on bottom-line results," said Tom Monahan, CEB chairman and CEO. "This acquisition accelerates the groundbreaking work we have done to provide HR leaders with actionable solutions to measure the effectiveness of their development and talent management strategies, select and develop great teams, and build critical workforce skills."

The acquisition of KnowledgeAdvisors extends CEB's investment in analytics that equip corporate leaders to apply rigor and discipline to talent investments for greater business return. This investment, along with the industry's most robust talent measurement platform, a strong slate of organically developed new products and the recent acquisition of Talent Neuron, solidifies CEB's leadership position in the emerging talent management space.

"We're proud of the Metrics that Matter platform and the business value it allows our customers to derive when it comes to L&D investments" said Kent Barnett, KnowledgeAdvisors CEO. "We know that by aligning with CEB we'll be able to become an even more strategic partner to those organizations by more tightly linking outcomes to talent insight and best practice. We're excited to continue serving our more than 500 clients around the world and to introducing our analytics to the more than 16,000 senior executives in the CEB network."

Visit CEB to learn more about our talent management offerings.

About CEB
CEB, the leading member-based advisory company, equips more than 10,000 organizations around the globe with insights, tools and actionable solutions to transform enterprise performance. By combining advanced research and analytics with best practices from member companies, CEB helps leaders realize outsized returns by more effectively managing talent, information, customers and risk. Member companies include approximately 85% of the Fortune 500, half the Dow Jones Asian Titans, and nearly 85% of the FTSE 100. More at cebglobal.com.

^[i] American Society for Training & Development, "2013 State of the Industry," 2013.

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SOURCE CEB