Gartner announced that it has sold the CEB Challenger Sales Training Business to Marlin Equity Partners. Challenger offers a suite of professional skills development, intelligence and workflow solutions that are underpinned by the world-renowned, research-based Challenger™ and Effortless Experience™ sales and marketing methodologies. Challenger embeds proven and sustainable strategies, processes and tools into organizations’ sales, marketing and customer service workflows to dramatically improve sales results, drive revenue and enhance customer loyalty. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
JEGI (www.jegi.com), the leading independent investment bank for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors, headquartered in New York, NY, represented Gartner in this transaction.
Simon Frewer, CEO of Challenger stated, “We are transforming how organizations think about their corporate training and performance improvement programs. Our research and data-driven courseware has been carefully structured and designed to deliver quantifiable improvements in sales, marketing and customer service effectiveness. Marlin shares our strategic vision of continuing to expand the product portfolio and tech-enabled service offerings and accelerating our pace of innovation. Their strong history of growing technology businesses provides us with a solid foundation to succeed as an independent company.”
“Challenger is revolutionizing the way companies approach enterprise performance improvement with an integrated portfolio of training solutions that is backed by nearly a decade of continuous research. Its proven methodologies help enterprises navigate an increasingly informed customer base by providing meaningful insights and a strategic plan for organizational change,” said Ryan Wald, a managing director at Marlin. “We are excited to partner with the Challenger management team and look forward to supporting them as they continue to bring new and innovative solutions to the performance improvement market.”
About Challenger
Challenger is a leading global performance improvement platform that delivers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions focused on sales and marketing and customer service training through in-person workshops, eLearning and workflow tools, diagnostic and assessment offerings and other sales acceleration modules. Underpinned by the world-renowned, research-based Challenger™ and Effortless Experience™ methodologies, Challenger’s solutions help enterprises adopt, develop, communicate and implement more effective commercial strategies on a global scale. The company is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia with additional offices in Chicago, London, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, visit www.gartner.com/en/sales-service/challenger.
About Marlin Equity Partners
Marlin Equity Partners is a global investment firm with over $6.7 billion of capital under management. The firm is focused on providing corporate parents, shareholders and other stakeholders with tailored solutions that meet their business and liquidity needs. Marlin invests in businesses across multiple industries where its capital base, industry relationships and extensive network of operational resources significantly strengthen a company’s outlook and enhance value. Since its inception, Marlin, through its group of funds and related companies, has successfully completed over 130 acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with an additional office in London. For more information, visit www.marlinequity.com.
About JEGI
JEGI has been the leading independent investment bank for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors for over 30 years. Headquartered in North America, with offices in New York City and Boston, as well as London and Sydney (through its partnership with CLARITY), JEGI has completed more than 650 high‐profile M&A and financing transactions, serving global corporations; middle‐market and emerging companies; entrepreneurial owners and founders; and private equity and venture capital firms. For more information, visit www.jegi.com.
