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DiggEducational software company Blackboard Inc. agreed Monday, Jan. 14, to buy NTI Group Inc., which specializing in mass-messaging technology, for as much as $199 million in cash and stock.
In a statement, the Washington, D.C.-based e-learning software company said it will pay $132 million in cash and $50 million in stock to NTI's owners when the deal closes, which is expected to close by the end of March. The statement did not reveal who owns privately owned NTI.
In addition, Blackboard will pay out as much as $17 million in additional payments as long as NTI meets certain financial targets in the two years following the acquisition.
The statement said Blackboard is making the purchase because more schools and educational bodies are using the Internet to instruct students, so mass communications are becoming more important as educational tools. Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based NTI's products can help because it specializes in notifications systems for educational and government organizations via voice, email, SMS, and other text-receiving devices.
``NTI is the leading provider of these systems to educational institutions and government agencies and the addition of their solutions is an excellent next step in the growth of Blackboard's product portfolio,'' said Blackboard president and chief executive Michael Chasen in the statement. ``NTI expands our client base significantly and in particular adds more than 1,200 new relationships with key IT decision makers in the K-12 market.''
The buyer added that mass communication systems are also becoming increasingly important and schools and higher education need to be able to communicate with students instantly during ``a range of school and campus tragedies, severe weather and other safety concerns.''
Once the two companies are combined, Blackboard will have a client base of more than 4,900 kindergarten-to-Grade-12 schools, colleges and universities and a growing presence in government organizations and corporations. Blackboard also said the purchase will strengthen management and allow numerous opportunities for cross-selling.
Blackboard expects the purchase will add slightly to earnings per share on a non-GAAP adjusted basis in 2008. The company also forecast its fourth-quarter 2007 net income would be 11 to 13 cents per share on revenue of $62 million to $63 million. It is forecasting 2008 revenue of $278 million to $284 million, excluding the NTI acquisition.
Blackboard received financial advice from Wachovia Securities and legal advice from Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. NTI retained UBS Investment Bank as its financial adviser and Latham and Watkins LLP as its legal counsel.
In 2006, BlackBoard bought its main competitor WebCT Inc. for about $180 million after a lengthy antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice.
Dear Mr./ Madam,
We are pleased to announce you that our institute ( The Arab European Institute ) is going to organize the First e-Learning Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the 15th of April, 2008,and we need sponsors for this international Forum which aims at ;
1- Identifying e-learning ( concepts - bases - application methods - education management systems - e-learning environment )
2- Identifying e-learning activating requirements, its quality standards, and its constraints.
3- Recognizing the local, Arab, and International experience in the field of e-learning.
This is an International Forum, so we invite your organization and other organizations which are interested in e-learning software products, organizations producing e-learning software products, and organizations work in the e-learning field to participate in this forum as sponsors . You can contact us on this e-mail or our site mail nadi@arabeuro.org
Yours sincerely,
Nadi Salim
The Forum Co-ordinator
Dear Mr./ Madam,
We are pleased to announce you that our institute ( The Arab European Institute ) is going to organize the First e-Learning Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the first of April, 2008, which aims at ;
1- Identifying e-learning ( concepts - bases - application methods - education management systems - e-learning environment )
2- Identifying e-learning activating requirements, its quality standards, and its constraints.
3- Recognizing the local, Arab, and International experience in the field of e-learning.
We invite your organization and other organizations which are interested in e-learning software products, organizatios producing e-learning software products, and organizations work in the e-learning field to participate in this forum as sponsors .
Yours sincerely,
Nadi Salim
The Forum Co-ordinator