Software giant Microsoft on Monday joined a $48 million investment round for Blackboard, which provides software for online education providers.
Washington, DC-based Blackboard said the financing, which brings the total it has raised since its 1997 launch to more than $100 million, will allow it to reach profitability within the next 12 months -- and perhaps buy competitors in the competitive online education space.
"Not only do we have the capital to get Blackboard to profitability, but we also have the means to continue exploring acquisitions and other initiatives to accelerate our growth," said Andrew H Rosen, Blackboard`s executive vice president of corporate development and general counsel.
Other prominent investors in Blackboard, which sells enterprise software products and services to schools, colleges, universities and other education providers, include AOL Time Warner, Internet Capital Group and Pearson Education, a unit of Pearson, the publisher of the Financial Times.
Microsoft was joined in the recent investment in Blackboard by investment banks Dain Rauscher Wessels and Morgan Keegan, and private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, which organised the funding round.
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