Advance Publications Nearing Deal to Buy Plagiarism-Scanning Company Turnitin For $1.75 Billion

By Melissa Korn

Turnitin, the software company that allows teachers to check whether papers submitted by students have been plagiarized, is being bought for $1.75 billion by Advance Publications Inc., the privately held company that owns Condé Nast and American City Business Journals, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Advance Publications also is a major shareholder in Charter Communications Inc. and Discovery Inc.

Turnitin uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to check for plagiarism in written and code assignments. The company also automates grading for teachers by marking grammatical errors and checking whether lines of code will work. It has reviewed the work of more than 34 million students across 153 countries, with about two-thirds of its customers in higher education and most of the rest in high schools.

The deal, which awaits regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.

Turnitin, based in Oakland, Calif., is currently owned by an investment group affiliated with venture-capital firm Insight Venture Partners, Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC and others.

Write to Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 06, 2019 11:00 ET (16:00 GMT)

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