Press release is here.
This is obviously a gob smacker of a story. I’m going to take a few days, talk to a few folks, and think about the implications before I write a reaction post. You may hear from other e-Literate bloggers on the subject in the meantime.
Stay tuned.
Hi Michael,
If you consider its a gob-smacker, then I know it must be something of genuine significance 🙂
For what its worth, I’ve written up my thoughts on the changes on my blog – http://www.markdrechsler.com/?p=811 – looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds from here.
Mark.
Startling news indeed … and interesting to see that Mark is the first to comment on this post, given that he is the person being sent out and about to re-assure NetSpot’s clients that there will be no change to service. (If it’s Wednesday, it must be Canberra.)
When WebCT was new and shiny and the LMS of choice, NetSpot hosted it for several Australian higher education institutions. Then Blackboard acquired WebCT and that stopped. Now NetSpot hosts Moodle, Echo360, Mahara, Equella, Wimba, and Data Centre for ex-WebCT clients.
Where to from here, do you think?
Michael,
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I see Blackboard’s acquisition of Moodlerooms as more of a hosting and support play than an attempt to reclaim market share. Blackboard has invested heavily in their managed hosting data center(s) and their recent acquisition of Presidium puts the company in the administrative and academic support services business as well.
Past performance and personal opinions aside, I predict that Blackboard’s new sales pitch to cash-strapped educational institutions may soon be “let us host and support your LMS for you. Don’t want to use Blackboard? No problem. We’re also one of the largest Moodle and Sakai hosts in the world.”
And, as long as I am out on a limb here, I may as well keep sawing: I also predict that Blackboard will soon start offering district-, county-, and state-wide multitenancy “choose your LMS” system hosting and support contracts.