After our coverage of Blackboard’s CEO change last week, we were both interviewed by the Washington Business Journal, with the following lede: Analysts and sources I spoke with Monday, both on and off the record, said the decision to bring on Bill Ballhaus as CEO was a combination of Bhatt failing to make progress building […]
Private equity
Parent Company of University of Phoenix Could Be Sold to Owner of McGraw-Hill Education
Apollo Education Group, parent company of the University of Phoenix as well as Apollo Global, is in “advanced talks” to be purchased by Apollo Global Management, owner of McGraw-Hill Education and of Cengage debt. Got that? To clarify, the Apollo Education Group is the parent company of the University of Phoenix, and they have a […]
Why Is Blackboard Laying Off Staff Despite Improved Market Share Position?
Over the past two weeks Blackboard had another round of layoffs, likely due to the company missing financial targets. While one estimate places the number at roughly 200, from what I have heard the number is closer to 90 – 100 people let go. I asked the company for commentary on the layoffs and associated reorganization. By […]
rSmart to Asahi to Scriba: What is happening to major Sakai partner?
It looks like we have another name and ownership change for one of the major Sakai partners, but this time the changes have a very closed feel to them. rSmart, led by Chris Coppola at the time, was one of the original Sakai commercial affiliates, and the LMS portion of the company was eventually sold to […]
SunGard HE and Blackboard Acquisitions: Compare and Contrast
UPDATE: In the section on ‘Cash Cow vs. Growth Potential’, my choice of words could have caused misunderstanding. I did not mean to equate Operating Income with Cash Flow, and my choice of the word ‘cash’ in this section should really have been ‘income’, as my analysis was obviously based on Operating Income. I have […]