CEB Snaps Up Employee Assessment Firm SHL

US member advisory company The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) is to acquire London-based staff assessment and benchmarking specialist SHL from its owners HgCapital and VSS, for $660m in cash.

SHL provides clients with access to data, analytics and insights for assessing and managing employees and applicants. The firm also has operations in Europe, Asia and the US, and in 2011 managed total revenues of $209.8m.

CEB combines best practice data from its thousands of member companies with other research methodologies and human capital analytics. Earlier this year, it acquired employee insight specialist Valtera, which offers a range of employee opinion and engagement survey services, and two years ago it bought trend spotting agency Iconoculture. The latest buy will allow it to integrate SHL's assessment methods, predictive analytics and technology platform.

Chairman and CEO Tom Monahan (pictured) states: 'By capitalizing on the combined company's knowledge, rich data sets and scalable delivery platform, this transaction will enhance our offerings across all functional areas. This is an important, exciting step in the execution of our on-going growth strategy of deepening member relationships and delivering high-value support to more of their important work.'

Web sites: www.executiveboard.com and www.shl.com .