Perth tech company Moodle has acquired three of its US-based partners for an undisclosed sum and merged them to form one company, Moodle US.
Moodle is an open source learning management platform started two decades ago and used in education institutions and workplaces all over the world.
It has about 300 million registered users worldwide.
The core company manages the development of the software while more than 100 partner organisations sell and configure it for clients. Partners pay Moodle a 10 per cent license fee for the use of the trademark and marketing.
Moodle purchased US partners My Learning Consultants, Moonami Learning Solutions and Elearning Experts in the recent acquisition.
The move adds 45 staff to Moodle’s 88 employees who are based in Perth, Spain and the United States.
Moodle founder and chief executive Martin Dougiamas said the business decided to acquire the US companies after finding flaws in the partnership model.
“It’s been a rough road so that’s why with Moodle US we have decided to start acquiring partners and to have our own Moodle business which isn’t going to have those risks,” Dr Dougiamas told Business News.
He said the acquisition would allow Moodle to provide an even higher level of service for its customers in the US, under the Moodle name.
“Moodle US is a great step forward both for Moodle and for the educators of all kinds that we serve,” Dr Dougiamas said.
“I fully expect the increased contact (and commercial pressure) from US customers will help us improve our open-source Moodle products even faster, which helps everyone.”
The software is developed by a community of more than 10,000 contributors worldwide.
