Datamark

October 15, 2013 (New York, NY) – Petsky Prunier is pleased to announce it has advised Datamark, Inc., a leading provider of data-driven enrollment marketing solutions to higher education institutions, on its acquisition of the technology assets of Altius Education, including its competency-based online learning platform, Helix, and its enrollment management and student retention platforms.

Datamark has delivered innovative, data-driven marketing exclusively to higher education since 1987. The company provides marketing advisory research services, full-service lead generation and management, and conversion marketing solutions designed to reach, engage, and motivate prospective students. Focusing on performance and visibility into the student enrollment cycle, Datamark helps schools drive higher return on their marketing investment.

The acquisition adds a new suite of services, including the Helix competency-based online learning platform, enrollment management services, and student retention services, to Datamark’s traditional strength in enrollment marketing, allowing the company to address further some of the most pressing challenges in higher education. Helix is an entirely new kind of online learning environment, offering competency-based, personalized learning paths that can make education more affordable and efficient. The cloud-based Helix platform is driven by big data analytic tools that provide feedback for improving student outcomes, while reducing costs and offering extreme reliability. The Helix authoring environment allows institutions to ease into competency-based learning, enabling them to present online courses in either a competency-based format or a more traditional course format.

An investment group led by Oakleigh Thorne, current chairman of the board of Datamark, financed the transaction and committed an additional $11 million in equity to fund the further development of the company’s infrastructure, as well as support the growth of Altius’ current educational partnerships, which will be managed by Datamark going forward.

A team from Petsky Prunier, led by John Prunier and Colleen Filipo, served as exclusive financial advisor to Datamark.