Blackboard Partners with NBC News to Bring News Archives & Digital Content to Clients

Blackboard Partners with NBC News to Bring News Archives & Digital Content to Clients

WASHINGTON, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a global leader in education technology, announced today that it has partnered with NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News to offer colleges, universities and K-12 schools and districts the ability to enhance instruction with a vast repository of digital news and supplemental content developed for educational use.

Under the agreement, Blackboard and NBC News will work together to support the use of news content by K-12 and postsecondary institutions in the United States. The partnership will enable instructors and students to access audio, video and other news content within their e-learning platform to strengthen the learning experience.

With the partnership, NBC News becomes a Principal Partner in the new Blackboard Content Network(TM), which offers expanded opportunities for content providers to work with Blackboard and support its user community.

"This partnership is an important opportunity to support institutions with a digital content strategy that gives teachers and learners valuable tools and resources that enhance the learning experience," said Michael Chasen, President and CEO of Blackboard. "We're pleased to join with NBC News in this effort to leverage digital content to help students and educators develop a deeper understanding of a wide range of subjects and disciplines."

The NBC News Archives on Demand offering will enable educators to more meaningfully engage students in a wide range of courses with thousands of video resources that span across subject areas including some of the most important moments in history. The NBC News archives begins with the introduction of television broadcast including presidential elections ranging from Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 to Barack Obama in 2008, Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the difference in environmental conditions during different times in the earth's history.

The archives also offers relevant current event resources on history as it is being made every day, through additional primary source content, original audio, video and third-party content such as the Washington Post's newspaper articles, and current material from NBC News' leading media properties including "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press." With these resources, educators can add to their instruction the latest on current events including the first few months of the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress, to the global response to the economic crisis and efforts to address the global warming challenge.

"By making the rich resources of NBC News available to educators and students we are bridging the divide between traditional teaching methods and the interactive media culture in which today's students reside," said Steve Capus, President of NBC News. "It's often been said that journalists help write the first drafts of history. Now, through our instantly updated NBC News archives, history can come alive in the classroom."

For more information about the Blackboard Content Network, please visit http://www.blackboard.com/contentnetwork. For more information about Blackboard Learn, please visit www.blackboard.com/learn.

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day. Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

About NBC News

NBC News has been a leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years, first on radio, and today via broadcast and cable television, the Internet, radio and cell phones. Operating around the clock with bureaus in key cities in the United States and overseas, NBC News provides immediate coverage and in-depth reporting of major events to a worldwide audience.

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-Q filed on May 7, 2009 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of July 15, 2009. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to July 15, 2009.

Source: Blackboard Inc.

CONTACT: Matthew Maurer, Blackboard Inc., +1-202-463-4860 ext. 2637,
matthew.maurer@blackboard.com; or Lauren Skowronski, NBC News, +1-212-664-2432
or Lauren.Skowronski@nbcuni.com

Web Site: http://www.blackboard.com/

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