Blackboard, Anthology to merge, creating ed-tech behemoth

Anthology, which emerged a year ago from the combination of three higher education administrative software firms, will merge with Blackboard, long the most visible company in learning technology, the two companies announced. The deal will result in the end of Blackboard as a freestanding company, and could bring the end of its well-known, and sometimes controversial, brand, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.

The companies did not share any financial data, but the combined entity is likely to be among the sector’s biggest educational technology firms. Blackboard’s current owner, Providence Equity Partners, bought it in 2011 for US$1.64 billion, and Blackboard was shopped (but not sold) in 2015 for about US$3 billion.

“Our combined footprint, from both a product perspective and from the more than 4,000 colleges and universities we serve worldwide, likely makes this the largest education technology company selling into higher education,” Jim Milton, Anthology’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview. Milton will lead the combined company, whose name has not yet been decided.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site