Transforming the Internet into a powerful environment for the education experience

Formed with this vision, Washington D.C.-based Blackboard Inc. has become the leading provider of Internet infrastructure software for e-Education.

Blackboard offers a complete suite of enterprise software products and services that power a total “e-Education Infrastructure” for schools, colleges, universities, and other education providers. Blackboard solutions deliver the promise of the Internet for online teaching and learning, campus communities, auxiliary services, and integration of Web-enabled student services and back office systems.

Providing technology at the intersection of the Internet’s transformation of the education and training industry, Blackboard serves one of the fastest growing industry segments in the world. Eduventures.com Inc., a leading independent e-Learning industry analyst firm, projects that the higher education e-Learning market will grow from $4 billion today to $11 billion by 2003.

Industry analysts continually rank Blackboard’s two major lines of business, Course & Portal Solutions and Commerce & Access Solutions, as the market share and customer satisfaction leaders for thousands of academic institutions and a leading number of the Internet’s most popular consumer education sites. Since its founding in June 1997, Blackboard has grown to serve many of the largest, innovative, and best known institutions in the world, including: Georgetown University; Arizona State University; Temple University; Dallas County Community College District; Singapore Polytechnic; Cherry Creek School District (CO); Mortgage Bankers Association of America; Motorola University; FT Knowledge; and Kaplan.

As the Internet grows, Blackboard's roots in e-Education strengthen. What began as collaboration among a team of students and faculty at Cornell University has grown into a user base of more than 5.4 million individuals worldwide.

In fact, Eduventures.com recently declared: “Blackboard has established the strongest position in the marketplace to date - supported by a strong cash position, significant market penetration, and key strategic partnerships.” Eduventures.com’s landmark study, "After the Big Bang, Higher Education E-Learning Markets Get Set to Consolidate," places Blackboard squarely in the lead among competitors in the higher education e-Education market.

Blackboard's unique status in the e-Education market has attracted a strong management team and more than 400 professionals. The Blackboard team represents a broad-array of experience and expertise in the areas of education, computer hardware, instructional design, enterprise software development and consulting for organizations such as Apple, Datatel, Duke University, Gateway, KPMG, NBC, Oracle, State University of New York (SUNY), SUN, The Princeton Review, and SCT.