2025 was a year of big swings in HR technology M&A.

Private equity wrote checks measured in billions. Platform vendors went on acquisition sprees. And the learning technology market saw consolidation that will reshape how organizations think about skills development for years to come.

For instance, through Q3 2025 alone, Drake Star recorded 650+ HR Tech transactions globally with $22.3 billion in disclosed invested capital. Safe to say the market is not slowing down.

A few things stood out this year.

Private equity set the tone. Thoma Bravo’s $12.3 billion take-private of Dayforce was the headline, but it wasn’t alone. Paychex grabbed Paycor for $4.1 billion. HG doubled down on P&I with a $5.9 billion secondary stake. When PE firms write checks this big, they expect returns, which usually means tuck-in acquisitions and a lot of “synergy” (cost-cutting) talk. If you are a standalone vendor without a clear path to profitability or acquisition, this trend should keep you up at night.

Learning technology finally got its moment. I have been covering this space for years, and I cannot remember a single year with this much M&A activity in learning and skills. Coursera and Udemy are merging into a $2.5 billion company. Workday paid roughly $1.1 billion for Sana. ETU and Realizeit combined to form Skillwell. Skills intelligence is becoming the connective tissue between hiring, mobility, and development. The harder question is how organizations measure whether any of this actually works.

Workday made a statement. Three acquisitions in rapid succession tells you something. Paradox for frontline hiring. Sana for AI-powered learning. FlowiseAI for agent builder capabilities. Workday wants to be a system of action, not just a system of record. Whether they can integrate all of this without stumbling is another question entirely.

And yes, agentic AI started showing up in actual products. Not just pitch decks. Phenom rolled out multiple hiring agents. LinkedIn launched its Hiring Assistant. A handful of vendors shipped AI that executes tasks rather than just surfacing insights. Expect every vendor to claim “agentic” capabilities in 2026 (and for too few to actually deliver).

Key 2025 HR Technology Mergers and Acquisitions

Here are some of the notable deals from the past year.

Talent Acquisition

• Workday acquires Paradox: Workday completed its acquisition of Paradox, the conversational AI company known for its work with high-volume employers like McDonald’s, FedEx, and 7-Eleven. This gives Workday a native AI-powered front door for frontline and hourly hiring. Paradox has quietly become one of the most deployed conversational hiring tools in the market, and embedding it into Workday changes the competitive landscape for enterprise TA suites.
• SAP acquires SmartRecruiters: This deal fills a long-standing gap in SAP’s HCM portfolio. SAP acquired SmartRecruiters to strengthen its talent acquisition capabilities within the SuccessFactors HCM suite. SmartRecruiters will continue as a standalone brand while SAP migrates SuccessFactors Recruiting customers to the new platform. Modern ATS capabilities and a strong enterprise customer base come along with it.
• Zoom acquires BrightHire: Zoom entered the HR technology space by acquiring BrightHire, an interview intelligence platform. Millions of interviews already happen on Zoom, so adding purpose-built interview intelligence makes sense. BrightHire will continue as a standalone brand with plans to expand using Zoom’s AI and communication infrastructure. I would watch for Zoom to expand further into adjacent HR workflows.
• iCIMS acquires Apli: Frontline hiring remains one of the hardest problems in TA. iCIMS acquired Apli, an AI-powered recruitment automation company focused on frontline hiring in Latin America, to strengthen its high-volume hiring capabilities with conversational AI across text, WhatsApp, and web chat. Apli’s mobile-first, multi-channel approach addresses how frontline candidates actually want to engage.
• Employ acquires Pillar: Employ, parent company of JazzHR, Lever, and Jobvite, acquired Pillar to add interview intelligence capabilities across its portfolio. Interview intelligence is moving quickly from nice-to-have to expected capability. I expect this category to be absorbed into major ATS and HCM platforms within 18 months.
• Humanly acquires Sprockets, Qualifi, and HourWork: The frontline hiring space is consolidating fast. Humanly rolled up multiple conversational AI and frontline hiring tools into a broader platform for high-volume recruiting automation. Standalone chatbots and screening tools are getting absorbed into broader platforms, and this trend is not slowing down.
• Findem acquires Getro: Findem acquired Getro, the network platform powering 800+ VC/PE and professional communities, and launched Intelligent Job Posts. These are AI agents that automatically source, engage, and qualify candidates. Findem is betting that the traditional job post is dead. Their new model uses verified data and relationship intelligence to deliver hire-ready candidates instead of unqualified volume. Bold bet. We will see if it pays off.

Core HR / HCM / Payroll

• Paychex acquires Paycor ($4.1B): SMB payroll consolidation at scale. Paychex acquired Paycor for $4.1 billion, creating one of the largest SMB payroll and HCM providers in North America. Combined, these companies serve millions of small and mid-sized employers. Expect continued integration of capabilities and potential pricing pressure.
• Thoma Bravo takes Dayforce private ($12.3B): Thoma Bravo completed its $12.3 billion acquisition of Dayforce, backed by a significant minority investment from ADIA. The deal took Dayforce private at a 32% premium to its unaffected share price. Dayforce is positioning itself as a “generational AI software company” with room to invest in product development away from public market pressures. Going private gives them flexibility to make long-term bets on AI and product integration. Watch for accelerated M&A activity as Thoma Bravo executes its playbook.
• ADP acquires Pequity: Compensation management is increasingly critical as pay transparency legislation expands. ADP acquired Pequity, a compensation management platform, to strengthen its compensation planning and pay equity capabilities. ADP continues building out capabilities beyond core payroll, and this fits that pattern.
• Payscale acquires Datapeople: Compensation is more and more tied to talent acquisition with job postings, pay ranges, and other elements being linked through legislation and best practice. We covered this among some other notable compensation shifts in our 2025 Compensation Buyer’s Guide and Market Landscape report.
• Sage acquires Criterion HCM: Sage has been building its US presence methodically. UK-based Sage acquired Criterion HCM to expand in the US market with a unified cloud-based HCM platform. Criterion gives them a modern HCM platform to compete in the mid-market.
• Dayforce acquires Agentnoon: Workforce planning has long been a gap in most HCM platforms. Dayforce acquired Agentnoon, a strategic workforce planning platform, to add org design and scenario planning capabilities. This tuck-in acquisition gives Dayforce native capabilities in a category that is gaining urgency.
• UKG acquires Inova: Healthcare workforce management remains one of the most complex operational challenges out there. UKG acquired Inova Payroll to expand its SMB payroll capabilities and strengthen its position in healthcare. UKG continues to build vertical depth, and healthcare is a smart place to focus.
• Workleap acquires Barley: Performance and compensation have always been linked in theory. Montreal-based Workleap acquired Toronto-based Barley to add compensation management to its talent management platform. The deal connects performance reviews to compensation planning in a single workflow. Workleap is betting they should be linked in practice, in the same system.
• Equifax acquires Vault Verify: Verification services remain a quiet but essential piece of HR infrastructure. Equifax Workforce Solutions acquired Vault Verify to expand its employment and income verification services. Equifax continues consolidating this space.

Learning, Skills & Talent Management

• Coursera and Udemy merge (~$2.5B combined): This is the big one. Coursera and Udemy announced a definitive merger agreement, creating a combined learning platform with $1.5+ billion in annual revenue and 191 million registered learners. Coursera shareholders will own approximately 59% of the combined company. This combines Coursera’s university partnerships and credentials with Udemy’s creator-led marketplace and enterprise offerings. The real question is whether they can improve completion rates and prove skills outcomes. Scale alone does not solve that problem.
• Workday acquires Sana (~$1.1B): Workday acquired Sana, an AI-powered learning and knowledge platform, for approximately $1.1 billion. This deal reinforces Workday’s agentic AI strategy and positions learning as a strategic pillar. Workday is repositioning learning from a standalone module to a core capability embedded across the platform. Sana’s AI-native approach accelerates that vision.
• Workday acquires FlowiseAI: This one is about giving customers the tools to build their own agents, not just consume pre-built ones. Workday acquired FlowiseAI to add AI agent builder capabilities to its platform, enabling customers to create and deploy custom AI agents across HR and finance workflows. Platform extensibility becomes a competitive differentiator.
• Lightcast acquires Rhetorik, Simply, and The Skill Collective: Lightcast has been busy. They expanded their skills and labor market intelligence capabilities through a series of acquisitions, deepening their data foundation across labor supply, skills demand, and workforce movement. Lightcast is building the intelligence layer for workforce design. These acquisitions position them at the intersection of skills, compensation, and workforce planning.
• ETU and Realizeit merge to form Skillwell: ETU (immersive simulations) and Realizeit (adaptive learning) merged to create Skillwell, combining simulation-based skill building with AI-powered personalized learning paths. Immersive plus adaptive is an interesting combination. The bet is that learning which is both personalized and experiential will outperform traditional approaches. I am curious to see how this plays out.

Employee Experience & Wellbeing

• meQuilibrium and RippleWorx merge (Bow River Capital-backed): Classic PE roll-up. meQuilibrium completed a majority recapitalization with Bow River Capital’s Software Growth Equity team and simultaneously merged with Bow River portfolio company RippleWorx. The combined company focuses on workforce mental health, performance analytics, and talent development, with particular strength in federal government and law enforcement verticals. Expect more of these “platform plus portfolio company” mergers from growth equity firms.
• LumApps and Beekeeper merge: Frontline-first is accelerating. LumApps (modern intranet) and Beekeeper (frontline employee communications) merged to create an AI-powered employee hub with a combined valuation exceeding $1 billion. The deal unites desk-based and frontline worker platforms. This merger recognizes that employee experience platforms need to reach every worker, regardless of whether they sit at a desk.

Looking Ahead to 2026

2026 is off to a fast start.

This month alone, Docebo announced its acquisition of 365Talents, pairing skills intelligence with its learning platform. Phenom acquired Included AI, bringing agentic people analytics and workforce planning capabilities to its platform. That makes seven acquisitions for Phenom.

Both deals signal continued appetite for AI-native capabilities and the convergence of skills, learning, and talent intelligence.

One Lighthouse partner, David Hain of Gotham Growth Group, sees three categories drawing the most buyer attention right now: AI-enhanced HR tools (automation, talent analytics, agentic modules), skills and workforce planning systems that enable internal mobility, and employee experience platforms that link engagement to performance outcomes. He also flags SMB-focused HR tech as ripe for roll-ups by larger strategic buyers.

Our take: agentic AI will keep moving from buzzword to shipped product. PE will keep driving platform consolidation. And skills intelligence will become embedded infrastructure rather than a standalone category.

What open questions do I have? Whether these AI agents can actually complete work. Whether the learning mega-mergers will prove that skills investments drive measurable business outcomes. And how organizations should think about ROI when the tools keep changing.

We will be digging into those questions throughout the year!

The Bottom Line

So, what does this all mean? If you are a vendor, the path forward requires either clear differentiation or a credible path to acquisition. If you are a buyer, the consolidation creates opportunity to simplify your stack, but also risk if your preferred vendor gets absorbed into a platform that does not fit your roadmap.

Either way, pay attention and hold onto your hats because the market is moving fast!

Sources and Credits

This analysis draws from: 

• Our team’s coverage of the HR, talent, and learning technology market via our Lighthouse Tech Awards program, ongoing analyst briefings, event participation, press releases, and more.
• We like Drake Star’s Global HR Tech Reports and updates.
• Partnership with organizations like Gotham Growth Group where we help solution providers get funding or participate in buy- or sell-side M&A. 

What We Do at Lighthouse

We work with employers by providing research and advisory services around the HR technology landscape, talent trends that matter most to the modern workforce, and executive presentations on how the market is changing.

We work with solution providers that want to sell the right products to the right customers. We use a combination of advisory, industry insights, market intelligence, and custom research to support our partners.

Ben Eubanks

Ben Eubanks is the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory. He is an author, speaker, and researcher with a passion for telling stories and making complex topics easy to understand.

His latest book Talent Scarcity answers the question every business leader has asked in recent years: “Where are all the people, and how do we get them back to work?” It shares practical and strategic recruiting and retention ideas and case studies for every employer.

His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource on AI applications for hiring, development, and employee experience.

Ben has more than 10 years of experience both as an HR/recruiting executive as well as a researcher on workplace topics. His work is practical, relevant, and valued by practitioners from F100 firms to SMB organizations across the globe.

He has spoken to tens of thousands of HR professionals across the globe and enjoys sharing about technology, talent practices, and more. His speaking credits include the SHRM Annual Conference, Seminarium International, PeopleMatters Dubai and India, and over 100 other notable events.