WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc.
(Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced the launch of a new student services
offering with the acquisition of Presidium Inc., a leading provider
of administrative and academic support services to hundreds of
colleges and universities. With the new services, Blackboard
further expands its capability to support all aspects of the
student experience.
Presidium currently provides student lifecycle management
services for admissions and enrollment, financial aid and student
accounts and retention. The company has also long provided IT and
helpdesk support for students and faculty for various learning
management systems including Blackboard Learn™ as well as other
institutional technologies.
With the announcement, Blackboard now directly supports a wider
range of student activities and interactions that are complemented
by the Company’s more traditional focus on online learning and
campus commerce and services. As part of the new offering,
Blackboard will help institutions recruit and enroll students,
assess financial aid eligibility and disburse awards, handle
student registration and advising, and tackle retention programs
and degree completion efforts.
“This step enables us to help institutions address the full
lifecycle of student engagement to improve the total student
experience,” said Michael L. Chasen,
President and CEO of Blackboard. “With the full set of products and
services our combined team offers, we’re in a great position to
help our clients have greater impact in areas that are important to
leadership and to improving overall student and institutional
success.”
As part of Blackboard, the Presidium team will form a new
offering called Blackboard Student Services(SM). The offering is
available to all institutions – regardless of whether they work
with Blackboard for learning management or in other areas. In an
effort to ensure the strongest possible offering for student
support services, Blackboard will enhance and invest in current
operations to increase service quality and service product
innovation over time.
“Because no part of the student experience occurs in isolation,
we’ve developed an approach to helping institutions address the
full range of student experiences and needs,” said Greg Davies, Presidium CEO and Co-Founder.
“We’re looking forward to improving that work and expanding it to
new areas with the kind of investment we can make as part of
Blackboard to help our clients in a range of critical areas.”
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Reston, Va., Presidium currently serves
several hundred clients with about 160 full-time employees and a
larger team of support personnel in two different contact center
locations.
For more information about Blackboard Student Services, please
visit http://www.blackboard.com.
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 November 5, 2010 with the SEC. In addition, the
forward-looking statements included in this press release represent
the Company’s views as of January 12,
2011. 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 January 12,
2011.
SOURCE Blackboard Inc.