Los Angeles-based tech portfolio company J2 Global Inc. has acquired San Antonio-based cybersecurity training company Inspired eLearning and Austin-based RetailMeNot, J2 CEO Vivek Shah said during the company's earnings call on Nov. 2.
Financial information was not made public for the acquisition of Inspired eLearning, which adds security awareness training to J2's (Nasdaq: JCOM) suite of endpoint, email, virtual private network and backup solutions, Shah said during the call.
Inspired eLearning will remain in San Antonio and has plans for growth locally, Inspired eLearning CEO Kyle Metcalf said in an email to the Business Journal, adding that this is something the company has been working toward for a long time.
RetailMeNot was owned by San Antonio-based marketing company Vericast, formerly known as Harland Clarke Holdings Corp.
Acquisitions are central to J2's growth strategy, Shah said during the call.
While the RetailMeNot acquisition was announced in September, the $420 million deal closed last week, Shah said.
"In 2010, I was working with private equity to acquire businesses that would form the basis of a digital media company focused on helping make buying decisions. RetailMeNot was a perfect target, but we came up short on valuation. We acquired Ziff Davis instead," Shah said. "Since then, we've carefully followed RetailMeNot, waiting patiently for an opportunity to present itself."
RetailMeNot drove $4.7 billion in global sales to partners in 2019, according to J2's website.
Metcalf, a 2019 San Antonio Business Journal C-Suite Award recipient, became CEO of Inspired eLearning in 2017 after being the founder and general manager of Rackspace Digital.
Inspired eLearning's Security First Solutions, which delivers assessments, training and phishing simulations, won two awards in the Cyber Security Education and Training, Security Education and Platform, and Best Security Software categories from the Info Security Products Guide, the industry’s leading information security research and advisory guide, earlier this year.
J2's cybersecurity suite includes 10 other companies, including Vipre Security, encript.me, Sugarsync and KeepItSafe, according to its website.