HAWTHORNE, N.Y., Aug. 22, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- SmartPros Ltd. (AMEX:PED), a leader in the field of accredited professional education and corporate training, today announced that it has acquired the FinancialCampus product offering from SkillSoft's PLC (Nasdaq:SKIL) specializing in accredited financial services education and training for insurance agents, stockbrokers, financial planners and related industries.
FinancialCampus has delivered training to more than one million financial services professionals, and features a catalog of over 250 accredited online courses representing more than 16,000 hours of approved insurance continuing education credits across all state regulators and various professional designations in financial services. They also feature a series of securities and insurance pre-licensing training courses. The FinancialCampus product line can currently be seen at www.financialcampus.com.
"FinancialCampus is an ideal acquisition for SmartPros, creating a perfect complement to our existing accounting, finance, and financial service programs," said Allen Greene, SmartPros Chairman and CEO. "Their catalogs greatly increase our presence in the financial services arena, specifically in the insurance and brokerage markets."
FinancialCampus' course offerings and compliance support programs will be combined with SmartPros' existing banking library on SmartPros(r) Professional Education Center(tm), SmartPros' proprietary learning management system. In conjunction with the recently acquired assets of The Selbst Group, SmartPros Financial Services Training division will now offer a blended learning environment addressing the needs of financial services companies with both instructor-led and e-learning training solutions.
Founded in 1970 and acquired by NETg in 2004, FinancialCampus will move its operations to SmartPros' headquarters in Hawthorne, N.Y. FinancialCampus Senior Director, Mike Fowler, and Vice President of Operations, Jay Gregory, along with other key FinancialCampus employees, will become employees of SmartPros.
"SmartPros will add immediate impact to our existing business model," said Gregory. "Their current penetration into Fortune 500 companies along with the strength and quality of their existing product lines greatly increases the visibility of our core products. Our combined client bases will benefit greatly from this."
About SmartPros Ltd.
Founded in 1981, SmartPros Ltd. is an industry leader in the field of accredited professional education and corporate training. Its products and services are primarily focused in the accredited professional areas of corporate accounting, financial management, public accounting, governmental and not-for-profit accounting, financial services training, banking, engineering, legal, ethics and compliance, and information technology training. SmartPros is a leading provider of professional education products to Fortune 500 companies, as well as the major firms and associations in each of its professional markets. SmartPros provides education and content publishing and development services in a variety of media including Web, CD-ROM and video. Our subscription libraries feature hundreds of course titles and 2300+ hours of accredited education. SmartPros' proprietary Professional Education Center (PEC) Learning Management System (LMS) offers enterprise distribution and administration of education content and information. In addition, SmartPros produces a popular news and information portal for accounting and finance professionals serving more than one million ads and distributing more than 200,000 subscriber email newsletters each month. SmartPros' network of sites averages more than 450,000 monthly visits, serving a user base of 350,000+ profiled members. Visit www.smartpros.com
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