Blackboard Inc., maker of the popular college course-management software, announced on Friday that it had agreed to a $1.64-billion buyout by a private-equity firm, Providence Equity Partners.
The announcement came after the company said in April that it had received offers, setting off fevered speculation about the identity of its suitors. Blackboard plans to close the deal in the last quarter of this year.
The buyout is a big change in direction for one of higher education’s most prominent vendors, which had faced mounting pressure to both produce quarterly profits and shore up a declining market share for course-management software against an increasingly well-financed field of competitors.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Private-Equity Firm to Buy Blackboard for $1.64-Billion - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author:Josh Keller
