[February 15, 2017] |
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VitalSource Announces Intent to Acquire Verba
VitalSource Technologies LLC, Ingram Content Group's global leader in
digital education content delivery, today announced that it has entered
into a Letter of Intent to acquire Verba Software, Inc., a San
Francisco-based company dedicated to using technology to support campus
bookstores and help students save money on course materials.
"Our planned acquisition of Verba reinforces Ingram's and VitalSource's
commitment to the future of higher education," said Shawn Morin, CEO and
President, Ingram Content Group. "Continuing to make education more
affordable and more accessible inspires us and drives our work at
VitalSource. We admire and respect what Verba has built and the impact
their innovation has had on education."
Verba was founded in 2008 by Jared Pearlman, Ryan Petersen and Michael
Ragalie to tackle textbook affordability through radical transparency by
collaborating with independent campus stores. The proposed acquisition
of Verba will add to VitalSource's offerings in inclusive access,
analytics, and white-label ecommerce while bringing strengths in
adoptions management and pricing transparency.
"We are excited about what the Verba team brings to the table in terms
of people, ideas and technology. We plan to deepen our existing
integration with Verba Connect, their inclusive-access platform, to
provide institutions and college stores more options and opportunities
to help students and faculty," said VitalSource COO Pep Carrera.
"Students will save money, institutions will ensure students have
learning materials on the first day of class, and stores will be at the
center of the experience."
VitalSource currently powers inclusive-access programs at 1,250 higher
education institutions worldwide and has existing integrations with
Verba solutions at a number of those schools.
"VitalSource helped form the foundation for the All Access program here
at Auburn," said Rusty Weldon, Auburn University Bookstore. "They worked
hand-in-hand with our faculty and the publisher, showing us their
technology and proving that there was no one better equipped to make
this project happen. So much was at stake for our first inclusive
project, VitalSource was committed to making it work, down to the last
detail."
This is the type of campus store collaboration Carrera and Peersen,
Verba's CEO, are looking to grow through this acquisition.
"Joining VitalSource will accelerate our ability to serve the
independent store community," said Petersen. "With the tighter
integration and greater resources offered by VitalSource, we can keep
building better tools for stores and grow as the definitive leader in
inclusive-access solutions. College stores, faculty, students and
publishers - the entire ecosystem - benefit from this planned
acquisition."
Following a successful transaction, Verba will become part of a rapidly
growing and transforming global company, Ingram
Content Group, which has more than 3,400 associates across the globe
and has a rich legacy of 40 years of commitment to the college store
market. Ingram's VitalSource is focused on providing digital learning
solutions and courseware. VitalSource currently has locations in
Raleigh, NC; La Vergne, TN; Boston, MA; Scoresby, Australia; and Milton
Keynes, United Kingdom.
"Following the planned acquisition, VitalSource would have a new
presence in San Francisco and plans to keep the current Verba office
open," said Carrera. "As part of our expanded commitment to the
independent college store, our plans will include an acceleration of
Verba's product roadmap that will entail growth in the San
Francisco-based team."
VitalSource and Verba will be discussing the planned acquisition at the
Independent College Bookstore Association meeting in Las Vegas, February
15-17.
"We believe the campus store is best positioned to manage digital
content delivery for their institution and look forward to showing the
continued commitment and innovation an organization with the size and
legacy of VitalSource can bring to college stores," said Carrera.
VitalSource's acquisition of Verba is subject to customary closing
conditions and is expected to be complete in Q1 of this year.
About VitalSource | www.vitalsource.com
VitalSource Technologies LLC, part of Ingram Content Group LLC, is
improving the learning experience by making it easier to create and
deliver effective and affordable content. The preferred choice among
educational institutions and companies for digital learning materials,
VitalSource® helps over 1,000 educational content providers
create and deliver seamless interactive learning experiences through its
exclusive Bookshelf® platform to millions of learners at
7,000 institutions. Bookshelf users opened more than 18 million digital
textbooks last year and read more than 2.4 billion pages. Follow
VitalSource on Twitter (News - Alert) at @VitalSource.
About Verba | www.verbasoftware.com
Founded in 2008, Verba is a San Francisco-based company that works with
colleges and universities to reduce the cost of course materials by
elevating transparency and access. Verba offers web-based tools for
faculty to select course materials, bookstores to acquire low-cost
learning materials and for students to easily compare prices and gain
on-time access. Verba's Inclusive Access management tools, including
Verba Connect, leverage Verba's proprietary pricing analysis
model to alleviate administrative manual processes and ensure every
student has digital access to course materials at a low price on the
first day of classes. Verba works with more than 350 institutions of
varying sizes to reach over 3.1 million students each term.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170215006036/en/
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