Blackboard Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held NTI Group, Inc., a leading provider of mass messaging and notifications solutions for educational and government organizations via voice, email, SMS, and other text-receiving devices. Under terms of the agreement, Blackboard will acquire NTI for $182 million.
This acquisition enables Blackboard to better help institutions address several key challenges and trends which are taking place within the education community, namely:
1. As online learning continues to grow and more institutions utilize the internet to connect with traditional and virtual students, it is becoming increasingly important to have the capability to deliver mass communications with large populations of users across an array of technical devices;
2. In addition, it has become imperative that academic institutions have the ability to quickly and effectively communicate with their entire campus constituency in the wake of a range of school and campus tragedies, severe weather and other safety concerns; and
3. Institutions are focusing on mobile-centric strategies and looking to tightly integrate their learning environments with cell phones and PDAs.
Etykiety: english