Edvantage group merges with Reitangruppen owned Boxer Technologies AS and Kognita ltd

Edvantage group builds a clear number one in the Scandinavian eLearning Market

OSLO, Norway, March 2006, The owners of Edvantage group and Reitangruppen, owner of Boxer Technology AS and Kognita ltd have reached an agreement with the intent to merge the three companies. Individually each of the companies showed a very positive development in 2005. Post merger, Edvantage group will have a combined turnover of 55 MNOK and a total of 40 employees.

The new combined company, Edvantage group, will have its headquarters in Norway with support and sales operations in Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Benelux.

Kjell Magnus Reitan CEO of Reitan Service Handel, stated; “When we acquired Boxer and Kognita back in 2002, we told the market we would be active in building a leading European eLearning provider. Now the eLearning market has matured, IDC predicts 25% annual growth in the years to come. Both Kognita ltd and Boxer AS have had a very positive development, breaking into profitability during 2005. Wanting to be active in consolidating the immature eLearning market, we have evaluated several opportunities. Edvantage group is by far the best vehicle to full fill our vision in Scandinavia and then Europe”, continues Retain.

Edvantage group Chairman and founder of AllianceVenture Jan-Erik Hæreid said, “By joining forces we are taking Edvantage group one-step closer towards our goal. That is to take Edvantage group public in 3-5 years. By that time the company should have a turnover of more than 150 MNOK with a healthy profit margin. The growth will come both from organic growth as well as merger and acquisitions, primarily in the other Scandinavian countries”- concludes Hæreid

Thomas Berglund, CEO, Edvantage Group, clearly enthusiastic about the merger, commented, “Since Edvantage Group was founded in 1999, the goal has always been to build a leading European eLearning provider that helps large organisations to create business advantage by using eLearning. The merger with Kognita and Boxer is a step in the right direction that will help realise the goal.”

Ownership after the merger:
Reitangruppen, including former employees from Kognita and Boxer will own 35 % of the combined company after the merger. The current stakeholder of Edvantage group, Alliance Venture, NorthZone Venture, Foinco and Asset Management and employees will own 65%. Investment Director at Reitangruppen, John Strøm, will join the board of Edvantage group after the merger.

Stronger Scandinavian position:
Thomas Berglund, CEO of Edvantage group, continues, “All of the companies involved in the merger showed very positive development throughout 2005. By combining our strengths and resources we will become one of the leading e-learning solution providers in Europe and the number one in Scandinavia. This will make it easier to maintain and develop our position in the market, both in Scandinavia and abroad. All three organisations are very complementary and existing and new clients will benefit from the extended range of services that are now offered. The merger gives Edvantage group additional offerings to explore new opportunities using the product range, expertise and knowledge that Kognita and Boxer provides. ”

As a combined company will offer a broad range of services, including:

- The best off-the-shelf eLearning and referenceware;
- High quality tailor-made eLearning content;
- Innovative content authoring tools CourseBuilder;
- Virtual community technologies that support executive development programmes and the establishment of corporate universities;
- State of the art learning and competence management systems
- Project management and consultancy services;

Brand Name Customers:
The merged company will have an impressive customer list extending to over 200 organisations including: Ericsson, Hydro, Belgacom, Siemens, HBOS, SE-Banken, AkerKvaerner and AP-Moeller.

“We have been a client to Edvantage group since the beginning of 2005 and are pleased with the partnership to date. We perceive the merger as positive for the market in general,” say’s Hege Dillner, Vice President Group Human Resources, responsible for the HR systems and Services. “As a consequence Edvantage group will be able to support us with a wider spectre of eLearning service”.concludes Dillner .

About Edvantage Group
Edvantage Group has offices in Oslo, Copenhagen, London, Amsterdam and Stockholm, working as a solution partner with large organizations by supporting them with a broad set of services to fully exploit eLearning within their organization. Acting as a one-stop shop on eLearning content delivered with a guaranteed service level through its own developed Learning Gateway. One of the services Edvantage Group provides is to help customers set up virtual communities for existing executive development programs, this changes executive development from being event-based training to a richer form of continuous executive development. Today, Edvantage Group has agreements with most leading global eLearning content providers. The Learning Gateway has patents pending in Europe as well as United States. Edvantage group has companies like Ericsson, Nordea, SE-Banken, Siemens, DNV and Hydro as clients.

About Kognita ltd
Kognita is the leading provider of eLearning Services to corporate businesses and training providers. Kognita’s service comprises a fully hosted eLearning Learning Management System and Competence Assurance Toolset backed up by a full eLearning course administration and brokerage service. Organisations located around the world rely on Kognita’s services to deploy learning to individuals - be they employees, clients or contractors. The company works with over 30 world-class eLearning publishers located throughout the world.

About Boxer Technologies AS
As one of the leading eLearning production houses in Scandinavia, Boxer has proven through development of more than 450 e-Learning productions in recent years that the offer to the marketplace receives acknowledgement and provides value for money. Boxer employs 17 people, highly educated and experienced professionals, all dedicated to e-learning production, solutions and consulting. In addition Boxer has a top of the line course production tool CourseBuilder™. Today Boxer has offices in both Oslo and Stavanger.

Contact Information

Thomas Berglund

CEO

Edvantage group

Contact via E-mail