Sentinel Capital Partners Sells Inscape Publishing

Lower mid-market investment firm Sentinel Capital Partners, has sold Inscape Publishing, a provider of assessment products that develop interpersonal skills. Inscape was acquired by John Wiley & Sonsin a transaction valued at $85 million.

PRESS RELEASE

Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising, lower middle market companies, today announced the sale of Inscape Publishing, a leading provider of assessment and training products that develop interpersonal skills. Inscape’s products are based upon DiSC®, a psychological assessment tool which has been widely used to evaluate behavior for nearly a century. Inscape was acquired by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:JWa, JWb) in a transaction valued at $85 million on Feb. 16, 2012.

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Inscape’s DiSC® offerings provide a suite of content-rich, technology-enabled corporate training solutions for the development of employee skills such as sales, leadership, teamwork, communications and time management. Inscape’s products are used to train more than one million people in 70 countries and 30 different languages each year.

During Sentinel’s ownership, Inscape added a number of new assessments and related training tools to the DiSC® platform. The latest generation of products personalizes the training experience for end-users and enhances the training capabilities for Inscape’s affiliated trainers, resulting in substantial revenue and profit growth for Inscape.

“We are extremely pleased with the performance of Inscape under Jeff Sugerman’s leadership,” said Paul Murphy, a Sentinel Partner. “Inscape’s management team did a superb job advancing the DiSC® platform and extending Inscape’s leadership position in the corporate training industry. We believe Wiley is particularly well suited for Inscape’s next phase of growth and continued success.”

“Sentinel was a terrific partner to the Inscape team throughout their ownership period,” said Jeff Sugerman, Inscape’s Chief Executive Officer. “Sentinel’s support during the recent economic downturn as well as their expertise in helping management drive the growth of business services companies was instrumental in our achievements in recent years.”

The Inscape sale is the latest in an active period for Sentinel following a busy 2011. Last year, Sentinel closed four new platform investments, including Chromalox, a leading global branded manufacturer of commercial and industrial electric heating products and solutions; Critical Solutions International, the leading global provider of military vehicles designed to detect improvised explosives devices and landmines; National Spine and Pain Centers, a leading provider of management services to physicians specializing in interventional pain management procedures focused on relieving back and neck pain; and WellSpring Pharmaceutical Corp., a North American manufacturer and marketer of specialty prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Sentinel also exited business services investment Trinity Consultants, the nation’s leading provider of air quality consulting and compliance services, in November 2011.

About Sentinel Capital Partners

Sentinel Capital Partners specializes in buying and building lower middle market companies in the United States and Canada in partnership with management. Sentinel targets eight industry sectors — aerospace/defense, business services, consumer products/services, distribution, food/restaurants, franchising, healthcare products/services, and industrial manufacturing. Sentinel invests in management buyouts, purchases of family businesses, corporate divestitures, and going-private transactions of established businesses with EBITDA between $7 million and $35 million. For more information about Sentinel, visit www.sentinelpartners.com.

About Inscape Publishing
Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Inscape Publishing, Inc. is the leading developer of DiSC®-based corporate training and assessment solutions. Inscape recently launched Everything DiSC®, its third-generation application that combines online assessment, classroom facilitation, and post-training follow-up reports to create powerful, personalized workplace development experiences. With a global network of nearly 1,700 independent distributors, Inscape’s solution-focused products are used by thousands of organizations, including major government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. Every year, more than one million people worldwide participate in programs that use an Inscape assessment. Inscape products have been translated into 30 different languages and are used in 70 countries.