Blackboard Adds iPhone & Mobile Web Platform to Product Suite
Blackboard Acquires Terriblyclever to Support Mobile Education
WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq:
BBBB), a global leader in education technology, today announced a major step
in its efforts to support students' mobile lifestyle with the acquisition of
Terriblyclever Design, LLC, makers of MobilEdu(TM), the category defining
suite of iPhone(TM) and mobile Web applications for education.
MobilEdu allows education institutions to deliver a rich set of campus
life services and content to mobile devices, uniquely branded for each
institution, to better connect current students, parents, faculty, prospective
students and alumni to the campus experience in a way that wasn't possible
before.
With an Apple iPhone, iPod Touch or other device with a mobile Web
browser, MobilEdu users can navigate course catalogs and campus maps, e-mail
professors and classmates and get real-time updates on their course schedules,
campus events, news and sports teams.
"Today's students want to do everything with their mobile devices,
including managing their social, school and work lives," said Michael L.
Chasen, President and CEO of Blackboard. "Mobile is just beginning to emerge
and no one is doing more to define the space in education than Terriblyclever.
We're pleased to join forces to help institutions get serious about meeting
the expectations of students and other campus constituents who live and learn
in a mobile, digital world."
San Francisco-based Terriblyclever was started by a group of students who
worked with Stanford University to build iStanford, a set of iPhone
applications to support campus life. Terriblyclever has also developed iPhone
and mobile Web campus applications for Duke University, Medical College of
Georgia, Texas A&M University and several other higher education and K-12
institutions.
"We're proud of the technology we've developed, and excited about the
prospect of bringing it to a wider community of institutions," said Kayvon
Beykpour, co-founder of Terriblyclever who joins Blackboard as Vice President
and leads the Company's focus on mobile technologies for education. "We
started MobilEdu because we wanted to empower students and faculty by allowing
them to engage with their university in a powerful and mobile way. Joining
forces with Blackboard was the best way to work towards that vision, and we
couldn't be more excited."
Now part of the Blackboard family of solutions, MobilEdu is an independent
platform that can be accessed by users who download their institution's iPhone
application from the Apple iPhone AppStore to their iPhone or other mobile
device. Once up and running, an institution can enable MobilEdu users to:
-- Navigate a school's entire course catalog and utilize one-touch
navigation to directories and maps to find out more about course
professors and locations.
-- Identify exact campus location using GPS, search for buildings by name
or address and see photos of the building.
-- Check news, schedules, and real-time scores for athletic teams and
browse and receive alerts on general news articles for the
institution.
-- Access iTunes U, YouTube, or custom video content including course
lectures.
-- Find students and staff in the school directory, access calendars for
special events and campus happenings and browse and share images from
a school's photo archives.
In addition, with their open API institutions can extend the MobileEdu
platform to fully customize and personalize the school's iPhone and mobile Web
interfaces.
For more information about the MobilEdu platform, please visit
http://www.blackboard.com/mobiledu.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise technology
and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students
and learners around the world every day. Blackboard's solutions allow
thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government
organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus
commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their
communities. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C.,
with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and
prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes,"
"anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those
indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important
factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our
Form 10-Q filed on May 7, 2009 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking
statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of
July 14, 2009. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments
will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect
to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the
Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of
any date subsequent to July 14, 2009.
iPhone is a trademark and Apple, iPod touch and iTunes are registered
trademarks of Apple Inc.
SOURCE Blackboard Inc.
-0- 07/14/2009
/CONTACT: Matthew Maurer of Blackboard Inc., +1-202-463-4860, ext. 2637,
matthew.maurer@blackboard.com/
/Web Site: http://www.blackboard.com /
(BBBB)
CO: Blackboard Inc.; Terriblyclever Design, LLC
ST: District of Columbia
IN: MEN EDU ITE CSE
SU: TNM
PR
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0229 07/14/2009 16:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com