Informal approach made to Thirdforce

Irish listed e-learning group Thirdforce has received an approach for the business, The Irish Timeshas learned.

It is understood that the approach is led by chairman Pat McDonagh and chief executive Brendan O’Sullivan, who want to take the company private.

Mr McDonagh owns 25 per cent of the business and is a wealthy businessman.

He previously founded e-learning company Riverdeep, and Irish tech business Smartforce, now known as SkillSoft. Both were listed on the Nasdaq.

The board of Thirdforce is believed to have hired Goodbody Corporate Finance to help it assess the approach.

The approach is thought to have been made last week although no formal offer has yet been tabled. Attempts to reach Mr O’Sullivan yesterday were not successful.

Thirdforce is listed on the IEX secondary stock exchange in Dublin and the junior AIM market in London.

Its shares closed in Dublin yesterday at 8.5 cent, an increase of 21.4 per cent on the day.

This gave it a market value of €21.6 million.

The company’s worth has roughly halved over the past 15 months.

Thirdforce provides e-learning courseware to the corporate, government and education markets. It reported an operating loss of €897,000 on revenues of €13.5 million in the six months to the end of June 2008.

This compared with an operating profit of €653,000 on sales of €9 million in the same period of 2007.

Its full-year results are expected in the coming weeks.

Headquartered in Ireland, Thirdforce also has offices in London, the US, Australia and Canada.

Formerly known as Rapid Technologies, it adopted its current name in 2003 and has completed four acquisitions in the past six years – Electric Paper, AV Edge, Creative Learning Media and MindLeaders.