K&L Gates Advises Digital Education Curriculum Provider Discovery Education on Acquisition of Mystery Science

Charlotte - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has advised Charlotte, NC-based Discovery Education, a global leader in standards-based digital curriculum resources for K-12 classrooms worldwide, on the acquisition of K-5 STEM curriculum provider Mystery Science. 
 
Discovery Education serves more than four million educators and 45 million students in the United States and United Kingdom, and more than 140 countries across the globe.
 
Based in San Francisco, Mystery Science is used in more than 50 percent of U.S. elementary schools each month and features ready-to-teach digital lessons for students. Each lesson begins by posing a question commonly asked by young students, which is followed by a series of brief videos and prompts used to guide class discussion. The lesson concludes with an activity incorporating basic supplies commonly found in a classroom or at home. 
 
The acquisition of the Mystery Science curriculum further bolsters Discovery Education’s other successful digital services supporting science education, which include Discovery Education Experience, the Science Techbook series, and STEM Connect.  
 
The K&L Gates team that advised Discovery Education was led by M&A partner Brett Durham and M&A associate Michael Hutson, and included corporate partners Lisa Stark, Rick Giovannelli, and John Allison; technology transactions partner Mark Wittow; labor, employment, and workplace safety partner Leann Walsh; benefits and executive compensation partner Rikki Sapolich-Krol; corporate tax partner Randy Clark; real estate partner David Wagner; venture capital partners Gary Kocher and Francisco Olmedo; estates partners Kristen Del Sole and Jeffrey Joy; and antitrust counsel Ken Knox, with assistance from associates Michael Johnson, Amy Conant Hoang, Kim McKenzie, Kelsey Poorman, Jessica Moore, Melanie Stratton-Lopez, and Samantha Beatty. 
 
Durham stated: “It was a pleasure to partner with Discovery Education on this key strategic transaction. The transaction highlighted the cross-office team’s ability to provide efficient and practical advice across a variety of disciplines.”