On June 30, ETS agreed to acquire ACT. If you sell into colleges and universities, the headline most outlets are running, two admissions-test rivals combine, is the least useful part of this for you. The part that matters sits one layer down, in the assets that came attached to the ACT brand and in what the combined entity now controls across the data your products depend on.
The acquirer is buying from a position of weakness, which shapes how this plays out. ETS has cut for five straight years, lost the SAT contract that carried close to a third of its revenue, and put the GRE and TOEFL up for sale for around $500 million as of January. A distressed organization absorbing a large acquisition tends to be slow on integration and inconsistent on roadmap, and that creates both risk and opening for the vendors operating around it.
The asset they did not headline is the one that hits you
The piece of this deal with the most direct bearing on your business is Encoura, which came to ETS folded inside ACT and never appeared in the announcement.
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