Pluralsight Acquisition

Pluralsight was founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard, Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams, who each contributed $5,000 to start the company. After four years, Pluralsight expanded from classroom-based offerings to publishing their first digital course in 2008. After nine years of self-funding, the company raised its first external capital in December 2012, with a $27.5M Series A from Insight Venture Partners. By 2016, Pluralsight was a unicorn their $30M Series C round valued the company over $1 billion. Pluralsight went public via IPO on May 17, 2018 at a $15 share price. In December 2020, Pluralsight announced it would be acquired by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for $3.5 billion. At the time, the company supported 18,000 corporate clients, including 70 of Fortune 500 companies. Vista completed the acquisition in April 2021 at $22.50 per share a 25 premium to Pluralsights 30-day trading average. Three years later, Vista announced they had written off the entire equity value of Pluralsight in May 2024.