Acquisition Enhances Offerings to Life Sciences Clients

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2013-- Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HURN), a leading provider of business consulting services, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of The Frankel Group Associates LLC, a leading life sciences consulting firm. The acquisition will expand Huron’s strategy, operations, advanced analytics, and regulatory compliance offerings to life sciences clients and to the law firms and investment firms that serve these companies.

“We are pleased to welcome Frankel Group to Huron,” said James H. Roth, president and chief executive officer, Huron Consulting Group. “Their expertise will expand the portfolio of services we provide to our pharmaceutical, medical device, and investment banking/private equity clients, while adding to the value proposition that we bring to the healthcare industry.”

The life sciences industry is undergoing significant change as a result of factors including market consolidation, healthcare reform, increased regulations, generic competition, challenging drug pipelines, and pressure on research & development (R&D) spending.

"The expansion of the current Huron Life Sciences team with the Frankel Group will enhance Huron’s capabilities to help C-suite executives in this industry address their strategic business decisions and regulatory compliance concerns in an increasingly complicated technical, commercial and regulatory environment,” said Paul Silver, managing director and Huron Life Sciences practice leader.

“We are delighted to be joining Huron and expanding the deep industry knowledge and expertise of the Huron Life Sciences team,” said Barry Frankel, managing director and founder, Frankel Group. “This combination brings together a portfolio of strategic insight, science and technology depth, regulatory and compliance expertise, commercialization experience, and marketplace data and advanced analytics coupled with comprehensive risk management.”

For more than 20 years, Frankel Group has served a diverse client base including global pharmaceutical, emerging bio/pharmaceutical, device and diagnostic companies as well as investment firms serving the life sciences industry. Frankel Group’s strategic solutions include Corporate Strategy, R&D Optimization, Business Development Advisory, and Commercialization Strategies.

The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in early January 2014 and will result in approximately 50 Frankel Group professionals joining the Huron Life Sciences team. Along with Barry Frankel, the following individuals will join Huron as managing directors: Lester Cheng, Nathan Dowden, David Gilman, Benjamin Rymzo, and Marc Tomassi.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. For reporting purposes, Frankel Group will be included in the Huron Education and Life Sciences segment.

About Huron Life Sciences

Huron Life Sciences serves healthcare providers, academic medical centers, pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies and the law firms that support these organizations to define, measure, and achieve financial, operational, and strategic objectives. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/lifesciences or follow us on Twitter: @Huron.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, reduce costs, leverage technology, process and review large amounts of complex data, address regulatory changes, recover from distress and stimulate growth. Our professionals employ their expertise in administration, management, finance, operations, strategy, business intelligence and technology to provide our clients with specialized analyses and customized advice and solutions that are tailored to address each client's particular challenges and opportunities to deliver sustainable and measurable results. The Company provides consulting services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, leading academic institutions, Fortune 500 companies, governmental entities and law firms. Huron has worked with more than 90 of the top 100 research universities, more than 400 corporate general counsel, and more than 385 hospitals and academic medical centers. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.

Statements in this press release that are not historical in nature, including those concerning the Company’s current expectations about its future requirements and needs, are “forward-looking” statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “provides,” “anticipates,” “assumes,” “can,” “will,” “meets,” “could,” “likely,” “intends,” “might,” “predicts,” “seeks,” “would,” “believes,” “estimates,” “plans” or “continues.” These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations about our future requirements and needs, results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements, including, without limitation, current expectations with respect to, among other factors, utilization rates, billing rates, and the number of revenue-generating professionals; that we are able to expand our service offerings; that we successfully integrate the businesses we acquire; and that existing market conditions continue to trend upward. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, among others, those described under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events, or for any other reason.

Source: Huron Consulting Group Inc.

Huron Consulting Group Inc.
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