1/7/2004 -- Kaplan Education, owner of practice-exam provider Self Test Software, recently announced it has acquired the assets rival exam provider, Nashville, Tenn.-based Transcender.

Kaplan paid $10 million to Stamford, Conn.-based Information Holdings for the assets.

Self Test and Transcender, both founded in 1992, are widely viewed as the number two and number one providers of IT certification practice exams, respectively. Self Test was acquired by Kaplan in 1999.

Self Test President Chip Schuneman told CertCities.com the intent at this point is for both product lines to remain intact. "Both companies have established really strong brands, whether it's vendor-endorsed products with Self Test or just the high quality Transcender exams," he explained. "We're going through a period of discovering what's made Transcender such a great brand in order retain its strong value in the future."

One issue still being worked out is how Transcender's independently produced practice exams can coexist with Self Test's official exam provider status. Schuneman said that the company is talking to partners like Microsoft and Oracle on how this might work. 'The response [to the acquisition] has been warm," he stated. "They have questions just like you have, and we just have to work those out."

Schuneman also said he didn't know at this time whether the acquisition would result in layoffs, but he did say, " There's some incredibly talented people here. When buying assets, [people are] the most valuable asset you're purchasing."

"As a leader in educational services...Kaplan is just a natural and perfect home for Transcender," he continued."We didn't pay 10 million to disable the company, we did it to enable the company, and the combination of the number one and two providers...can only benefit IT professionals going forward."

Schuneman stressed that it is "business as usual" for customers of both products line, stating that both continue to be available and all guarantees are and will continue to be honored.

Kaplan Education is a division of Kaplan Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company.

For more on Kaplan Education, go to www.kaplan.com. For more on Self Test, go to www.selftestsoftware.com. For more on Transcender, go to www.transcender.com. -Becky Nagel