Blackboard completes purchase chase of WebCT for $148 million.

Blackboard Inc. (Washington, D.C.), a provider of software applications and related services to the education industry, has completed the acquisition of WebCT (Lynnfield, MA), a provider of e-learning systems for educational institutions, for $178 million. The effective purchase price before transaction cost was approximately $148 million, net of WebCT's cash balance of $30 million.

WebCT produces live and professional development online workshops, print and online training materials, technical solutions for e-learning systems, hosting services for educational institutions, the WebCT Campus Edition, a set of tools for course preparation, delivery and management, and the WebCT Vista enterprise e-learning system, a program for a range of educational constituents. WebCT said that its products are used by "thousands" of institutions worldwide and are distributed in 14 languages. The new combined company will have over 3700 clients.

Established in 1997, Blackboard provides enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Its two product suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite and the Blackboard Commerce Suite, are targeted to colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other educational providers and their students, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers. Blackboard had revenues of $111.4 million and net income of $10.05 million in 2005, compared to revenues of $92.5 million and a net loss of $1.43 million in 2004.