Advance Publications Nearing Deal to Buy Plagiarism-Scanning Company Turnitin For $1.75 Billion -- Update
March 06 2019 - 2:05PM
Dow Jones News
By Melissa Korn
Advance Publications Inc. agreed to acquire Turnitin, the
software company that allows teachers to check whether papers
submitted by students have been plagiarized, for nearly $1.75
billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Advance Publications, the privately held company that owns Condé
Nast and American City Business Journals, 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.
Advance has been expanding beyond its core print media market.
In addition to stakes in Charter, Discovery and reddit, last year
it bought Stage Entertainment, a theater production company that
operates 20 theaters globally.
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.
Insight, GIC and other investors bought iParidigms, Turnitin's
parent company, for $752 million in 2014.
Write to Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 06, 2019 13:50 ET (18:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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