Blackboard

By Jeffrey R. Young - October 20, 2011  Chronicle of Higher Education Philadelphia—When Pearson officials talk about their new learning-management system, OpenClass, they like to mention Google. They note that the software is distributed through Google’s App marketplace, and say that it was inspired by Google’s popular e-mail and Web services platform. Pearson drops the company’s [...]

By Dian Schaffhauser 10/05/11 A day after its acquisition of Blackboard was completed, Providence Equity Partners has begun leveraging its multiple investments in education technology. Two of its companies–Blackboard and Edline–have announced an immediate merging. Edline will become another division in Blackboard’s portfolio. Both companies sell learning management and mass notification products to the K-12 [...]

Like Edline, Blackboard can also be used by parents to keep track of what’s going on in the school and the classroom. Depending on how well teachers embrace the technology, Blackboard and Edline can do a lot more than help parents keep track of whether their kids are turning in homework.

– Blackboard stockholders to receive $45.00 per share in cash – Transaction valued at approximately $1.64 billion in enterprise value – Blackboard to become a privately held company WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) today announced the completion of its acquisition by an investor group led by affiliates of Providence Equity [...]

Multiple zero-day security vulnerabilities have been found in the world’s most popular educational software – holes that allow students to change grades and download unpublished exams, whilst allowing criminals to steal personal information. Vulnerabilities in the Blackboard Learn platform have the potential to affect millions of school and university students and thousands of institutions around the world.

Blackboard is expected to be merged with Edline LLC, another educational software firm. Providence purchased Edline in 2009.
Standard & Poor’s cut its corporate credit rating on Blackboard, to B+ from BB-, after the acquisition was announced.

Despite actively marketing Blackboard 9.1, many university technology administrators view Blackboard as having skimped on research and development to focus on growth via acquiring LMS competitors like WebCT and Angel at the expense of expanding and refining their products. (There is also a mounting body of snafus that has given momentum to an anti-Blackboard movement on the Internet and among university technology staffers.)

Education officials in Nebraska have launched a pilot program for their first statewide virtual school. Today is the first day that school districts can apply to have students participate in the virtual school, called Nebraska Virtual Scholars. Fifty high school students will be accepted to participate in the pilot. Up until now, students in Nebraska [...]

Gilfus Education Group Announces Webinar on Developing a Productive Workforce from 2011 to 2020 “Workforce Development: Transitioning from 2011 to 2020” Washington, DC   (Thursday, August 11th, 2011) – Gilfus Education Group announced today that it will offer a webinar titled Workforce Development: Transitioning from 2011 to 2020.  Attendees will be provided with an overview [...]

* Deal terms being finalized, could be announced by Friday* BofA, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley providing financing * Blackboard market value at $1.52 bln as of Thursday By Nadia Damouni and Soyoung Kim NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) – Private equity firm Providence Equity Partners is nearing a deal to buy education software company Blackboard [...]

Blackboard Inc. (BBBB), a maker of online educational courseware, may lure buyout offers of as much as $65 a share from strategic bidders seeking to expand in Internet publishing, analysts at Stifel Nicolas said in a report today. Education publishers News Corp. (NWSA), Pearson Plc (PSON) and McGraw- Hill Cos. may consider making offers for [...]

Blackboard (NASDAQ: BBBB) today announced that it has retained Barclays Capital as its financial advisor in response to receiving unsolicited, non-binding proposals to acquire the company.