Acidus wrote:
] ] Seems unlikely that they will have a failed IPO. Their only
] ] public competitor, ecollege.com is valued at a ridiculous
] ] $20/share right now and has about 2% of the market share.
] ] Blackboard has an order of magnitude more market share. I
] ] expect Blackboard to go straight up and ecollege to drop.
] ] Ecollege investors are nuts, I think they don't realize that
]
] ] major competetors Blackboard, WebCT and Desire2Learn are
] ] dominating the market and that ecollege is merely a
] footnote.
] ] The fact that ecollege stock price is so high right now
] points
] ] to the fact that investors want to get into the lucrative
] ] elearning market.
]
] True, but BB has a sizable investment in its Transaction
] System, which I have the most experience with. There
] competitors there are quite steep with Diebold and CBORD.
]
] My beef with BB, other than getting sued, is a bunch of Execs
] and VC bought several competing Transaction system, some web
] portal software, jazzed the marketing up on them, and are
] trying for a nice rich IPO. They are making money without
] innovation, so fuck em.

Again, I think your personal feelings are clouding your judgment. Blackboard purchased the transaction systems as a means to "go deep" in the university marketplace. There are natural synergies between a university's e-learning and transaction systems, and Blackboard obviously wants to use those synergies to broaden and deepen its footprint in that market space.

You claim that Blackboard is "trying for a nice rich IPO." That's a delightfully populist barb; but it's a specious one as well. An IPO is a portal through which nearly all major companies must pass in order to grow. This IPO will provide Blackboard up to $75 million in operating capital, which will allow the company to hire more folks, invest in research and development, and focus resources on advancing its flagship e-Learning software. What an evil scheme! The bastards!

Seriously, I was a cocky know-it-all college student once upon a time. So I understand the angst and bile that is embedded in this thread. In fact, I may even have said similar things myself. But since then I've had the opportunity to observe how the business world works from the *inside*. And I humbly conclude thus: while there are always a few sketchy characters in any organization, most people in business are NOT scheming villains who pass their days in search of a new way to screw the public.

Just my 2 cents from off-campus....

RE: Blackboard Looks Likely To Go Public