GitPrime, a Durango homegrown startup that creates software to help engineering and computer programming teams improve their productivity, will be acquired by Pluralsight of Farmington, Utah, for $170 million in cash.
The acquisition is expected to close next week subject to regulatory closing conditions.
Pluralsight Inc. is traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol PS. Trading on Pluralsight ranged from $33.30 to $35.70 Thursday and ended at $34.54, down 2.26%.
In November 2018, fueled by a $10.5 million infusion of venture capital, GitPrime announced it planned to double its workforce, which then stood at 60 employees, over the next year. About half of GitPrime’s employees telecommuted and half worked at its headquarters in the Main Mall, 835 Main Ave.
GitPrime’s workforce in Durango includes a combination of sales agents, software developers and administrative personnel.
In the past year, GitPrime has used $10.5 million in venture capital it raised in 2018 to expand its 1,800-square-foot office in the Main Mall to 8,800 square feet to handle its burgeoning workforce.
Pluralsight describes itself as a developer of enterprise technology skills platforms, offering subscription-based video training courses for software developers, information technology administrators and other creative professionals.
The firm uses more than 1,400 experts on various business subjects in its educational videos and computer products and offers 6,500 courses in its catalog.
“The integration of GitPrime with our leading technology skills platform is a win for our customers and will greatly expand the Pluralsight platform to provide even more value to technology leaders and developers,” Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight, said in a news release issued Wednesday.
“Marrying Pluralsight’s skill measurement and skill development capabilities with GitPrime’s developer productivity capabilities provides technology leaders with the most complete platform to improve efficiencies and speed up product development to deliver their digital transformation strategies.
“The GitPrime team has built something incredible that solves a long-standing problem. I’m excited to welcome them to Pluralsight and integrate their platform so that technology leaders can more fully control their tech-driven futures,” Skonnard said.
Travis Kimmel, a co-founder of GitPrime, told The Durango Herald in November, “We’re bringing high-paying tech jobs to Durango. Our goal is to be the best job in Durango.”
Kimmel had planned to meet with the Herald, but was unavailable Thursday because of travel from Utah. It remains unclear how the acquisition will affect GitPrime’s Durango operation and its plans for rapid expansion in 2019.
Often in acquisitions, duplicate positions in areas such as human resources, accounting and marketing are eliminated through layoffs.
In November, Laura Lewis Marchino, executive director of the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado, said GitPrime worked hard to remain headquartered in Durango despite pressure to move to technology hotbeds such as Silicon Valley or Austin, Texas.
“Region 9 appreciates that this company has worked hard to stay in Southwest Colorado when they have had pressure to move elsewhere, Marchino told the Herald. “They have been actively seeking to hire Fort Lewis students. It is amazing to see how quickly they have grown and become one of our entrepreneurial leaders and role models.”
In 2015, its startup year, GitPrime created its initial software and acquired seed funding. In 2016, GitPrime was accepted to Y Combinator, a California-based accelerator for businesses with alumni such as Dropbox and Reddit.
The accelerator helped the founders build their business and network. They also participated in the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs, or SCAPE, in Durango.
“SCAPE is very excited for GitPrime and what they accomplished in a few years,” SCAPE Director Elizabeth Marsh said in an email. “This acquisition is a great testament to the local entrepreneurial community of investors and resources who support local businesses.”
Marsh said SCAPE invested in GitPrime in 2015 and 2017, and the company has exceeded all expectations with its rapid growth.
Marchino joined Marsh in expressing regret that Ed Morlan, the longtime director of Region 9, did not live to see GitPrime thriving in Durango.
“When Ed passed away, we wanted the SCAPE Entrepreneur Fund set up in honor of Ed, to not only assist our Southwest Colorado companies, but if they do ‘go big’ like GitPrime, some of that investment return can help sustain SCAPE into the future,” Marchino said in an email.
In November 2018, Kimmel said the firm had increased its revenue 250 percent in the previous year. The privately held company has not released sales numbers.
Part of the funding from the 2018 equity offering has been used to further refine GitPrime’s analytical software to customize it to meet unique needs of various large enterprises such as Disney and PayPal.
Kimmel told the Herald in November the firm has an array of ideas to improve its software, and the infusion of capital would help it refine its products to better track the efficiencies of software design teams.
parmijo@durangoherald.com