John Wiley and Sons Buys Inscape

Posted on February 18, 2012

John Wiley & Sons announced that it has acquired Inscape Holdings Inc. for $85 million. Wiley purchased all of the stock of Inscape, which provides assessments and training products for businesses. The purchase will help Wiley move into digital business products on a global basis.

In a statement, Mark Allin, Wiley's senior vice president, Professional/Trade, explained the reasoning behind the acquisition: "This acquisition offers a rare opportunity to bring together two respected, market-leading brands -- Pfeiffer, Wiley's global workplace learning brand, and Inscape -- to create a powerful force in the growing workplace learning industry. It will combine Wiley's extensive reservoir of valuable content and global reach with Inscape's technology, distribution network, and talent expertise, including the innovative EPIC online assessment-delivery platform and an elite network of nearly 1,700 independent consultants, trainers, and coaches that make up their global authorized distributors network."

Inscape's biggest products are its DiSC offerings, which Wiley believes are a perfect fit to its Pfeiffer branded products, such as Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory. DiSC products are personality tests which are used to evaluate leadership and qualities. Inscape's products are sold to government agencies and corporations all over the world. More than one million people use DiSC assessments in 30 languages each year.