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Blackboard Announces Record Company Revenue of $25.5 Million; Revenues Increase 34%, Company Post Net Income for Third Quarter 2003.


Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 2003

Blackboard Inc., a leading enterprise software company for e-Education, announces record revenue for the third quarter ended September 30, 2003. Blackboard Inc. is a privately held company privately held company

A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly.
.

In the third quarter, Blackboard(R) revenues were $25.5 million, representing 34% growth from third quarter 2002 revenues of $19.0 million. Of the Company's $25.5 million in revenues, product revenue accounted for approximately $22.3 million or 87% of total revenues, while services revenue was $3.2 million, or 13% of total revenues.

During the third quarter of 2003, Blackboard had net income for the first time in its history. The Company also had EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become  (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is a non-GAAP metric that can be used to evaluate a company's profitability.
:EBITDA = Operating Revenue – Operating Expenses + Other Revenue
) in excess of $3 million and had positive cash flow from operations Cash flow from operations

A firm's net cash inflow resulting directly from its regular operations (disregarding extraordinary items such as the sale of fixed assets or transaction costs associated with issuing securities), calculated as the sum of net income plus noncash expenses
. Blackboard ended the third quarter of 2003 with $22.1 million in cash and cash equivalents.

"We are extremely pleased to have posted net income for the first time in Blackboard's history, and slightly ahead of our targeted plan." said Peter Repetti, Chief Financial Officer for Blackboard. "With five consecutive quarters of positive cash flow from operations and EBITDA profitability, Blackboard's proven and now profitable business model ensures that we are poised for continued growth and investment in client success."

"The third quarter marked the achievement of several milestones for the Company," said Michael Chasen, Chief Executive Officer for Blackboard. "We invested heavily in the areas of support services and product development to continually enhance the overall e-Education experience of our clients. During the quarter, we made a significant investment in client support with the introduction of a new support model and doubling of the size of our overall support team. Additionally, we are very pleased with our innovative product development efforts related to the Blackboard Content System, which will be available in early 2004."

New and Expanding Client Relationships in the Third Quarter

-- U.S. Higher Education Market: California State University Enrollment
 

System, Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago; coeducational; founded 1940 by a merger of Armour Institute of Technology (founded 1892) and Lewis Institute (1896). , Indiana Wesleyan

University, Troy State University, University of Washington,

Vermont State Colleges The Vermont State Colleges (VSC) is the U.S. state of Vermont's system of public colleges. It functions as a governance organization, and was created by act of the Vermont General Assembly in 1961. , and others.

-- International Markets: Kobe College (Japan, IFAGE

(Switzerland), Universita di Corsica (France), Universidad

Juarez Autonomo de Tabasco, University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a university in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. History
The university has its origins in the Bradford Schools of Weaving, Design and Building which in 1882 became the Bradford Technical College.
 (UK), and

the University of the Virgin Islands UVI was founded as the College of the Virgin Islands on March 16, 1962. In 1986, it officially became one of the 117 U.S. historically black colleges and universities. The institution also changed its name in 1986 to the University of the Virgin Islands to reflect the growth and , and others.

-- K-12 Market: Baltimore City Public Schools These are all of the public elementary, middle, high, and charter schools in Baltimore, Maryland that are under control of the Baltimore City Public School System in each of its 7 areas. , Columbus Public

Schools, Michigan Virtual University Michigan Virtual University (MVU) is a non-profit group formed in 1998 to manage e-learning systems and career services for K-12 students exclusively for Michigan residents. Services
MVU runs:
  • Michigan Virtual High School
  • myDreamExplorer http://www.
, Monroe City Schools,

Sycamore Public Schools, the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States).  College

Prep, and the Virtual High School, and others.

Corporate Highlights from the Third Quarter

-- Blackboard was named the fastest growing private education

company in the annual Inc. 500 rankings. Blackboard's 11,047%

revenue growth from 1998 through 2002 also earned the Company

the #6 ranking in the overall list of the Inc. 500.

Blackboard's yearly revenue was $620,000 in 1998 and $69.2

million in 2002.

-- Blackboard announced the development of an education-specific

learning content management and e-Portfolio system - the

Blackboard Content System(TM). Slated for general release in

the fourth quarter of this year, the Blackboard Content System

will benefit students, faculty and campus IT administrators by

lowering the costs and increasing the simplicity of managing

learning content, digital assets and e-Portfolios in an

enterprise learning environment. Already, two clients have

decided to license the new Blackboard Content System in

advance of its pending launch.

-- Blackboard and CERNET Corporation formed CERNET-Blackboard

Information Technology Company, LTD LTD 1 Laron-type dwarfism 2 Leukotriene D 3 Long-term depression, see there 4. Long-term disability , which aims to accelerate

the adoption of e-Education technologies throughout China. The

new company has already launched the Study Center and begun

licensing the Blackboard Learning System A widely used education system from Blackboard Inc., Washington, D.C. (www.blackboard.com). Part of the company's Blackboard Academic Suite, it includes course management, content authoring, collaborative discussions, virtual classrooms, as well as testing and grading.  to education

institutions in the People's Republic of China.

-- Blackboard held the first annual Blackboard Building Blocks

Developers Workshop. More than 100 academic and commercial

developers of next-generation e-Learning technologies attended

the conference, which marked the first dedicated developer

event for a major commercial e-Learning platform in the

academic market, and a milestone for course management

systems.

About Blackboard

Blackboard Inc. was founded with a vision to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for the education experience. Blackboard is a leading provider of e-Education solutions serving the global needs of primary and secondary schools, higher education, corporations and government agencies. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff across North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

A privately-held company, Blackboard Inc. has raised more than $100 million in capital from top-tier strategic, venture capital, and private equity investors. Blackboard maintains close partnerships with its investors to fully leverage their industry relationships, financial expertise, and strategic guidance. Blackboard's strategic investors include AOL-Time Warner (NYSE NYSE

See: New York Stock Exchange
: AOL), Dell Computer Corporation (company) Dell Computer Corporation - One of the biggest US manufacturers of IBM PC compatibles.

"From notebooks to networks", their slogan says.

http://us.dell.com.
 (NASDAQ NASDAQ
 in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations

U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on
: DELL), Kaplan Ventures, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Pearson Education. Blackboard's financial investors include The Aurora Funds, The Carlyle Group, Dain Rauscher, Edelson Technology Partners, Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE), Merrill Lynch (NYSE: ML), Morgan Keegan, Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners.

Some of the statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking statements" that do not directly or exclusively relate to historical facts. These forward-looking statements reflect our intentions, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include known and unknown risks. Because actual results could differ materially from our intentions, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about the future, you are urged to view all forward-looking statements contained in this news release with caution. Blackboard Inc. does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2003, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Business Wire
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Nov 4, 2003
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