Big e-learning merger

SkillSoft and SmartForce have officially announced their merger.

They report that SmartForce’s American Depositary Shares, which were issued to former SkillSoft stockholders in the merger, will continue to trade on the Nasdaq National Market, and the ticker symbol SKILD will be used for a limited period of time before becoming SKIL. SmartForce intends to do business under the operating name of SkillSoft. The company will pursue legally changing its official name to SkillSoft in the near future.

The new combined company brings together SmartForce’s portfolio of IT e-learning content with SkillSoft's suite of business skills e-learning courseware, as well as its IT and business referenceware libraries. SkillSoft’s content offerings include over 5,000 courseware/simulation titles and over 2,500 digitized books, including content in 15 different languages.

Corporate headquarters of the combined company will be in Dublin, Ireland; North American headquarters and executive offices will be in Nashua, New Hampshire.