[DG: Open Forum] Fwd: FW: [FRYE] ANGEL + Blackboard = ??

[Joseph Hardin]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: news <news at angellearning.com>
Date: Wed, May 6, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Subject: Important Communication from ANGEL and Blackboard

To: ANGEL Clients

From: Christopher Clapp and Michael Chasen

Subject Line:  Important Communication from ANGEL and Blackboard

Dear Chris,

We’re writing today to communicate the news that ANGEL Learning and
Blackboard have decided to join forces.  The coming together of our
two companies in this acquisition creates important new opportunities
for innovation, stability and interoperability in eLearning.  We also
understand that news of this kind raises questions about the road
ahead.  So let us start providing answers by outlining the rationale
for combining and sharing some of the early details on what this means
for you.

Why put these two organizations together?  The simplest answer is that
each of us saw in the other unique and complementary strengths.
Especially in today’s economic environment, joining ANGEL’s record of
innovation and client focused culture with Blackboard’s industry
leadership and financial stability made a lot of sense.  Together
these strengths will amplify one another and equip the combined
organization to be a stronger, more flexible and creative technology
partner to education institutions for the near and long term.

What about the solutions?  How will they come together?  We’ll be
talking about that in detail starting next week at AUC 2009 in Chicago
where we hope to see many of you.  In the meantime though, the short
story is that 7.4, which you saw released last week, will continue as
planned.  In parallel we’ll set about the work of bringing the product
innovations of both companies to the new combined client community.

What should you expect from us going forward?  In the end,
combinations like this are ultimately about getting better and
providing more value.  Blackboard is striving hard to do both.  But we
understand that ultimately you’ll judge the success of this
combination for you based on what you experience as a client, not on
what you hear today.  So as we move forward we’ll have that one goal
in mind, showing you the value so that we can earn your long term
partnership.

We’ll make sure to communicate clearly and often so you know what’s
going on.  We know there will be lots of questions about today’s news
so please check out www.blackboard.com/angel, where you can read a lot
more about the ANGEL and Blackboard combination and even submit
questions of your own.  And again, no better place for communication
than at AUC 2009 next week where we hope you’ll join us.   In addition
to the great slate of sessions from your peers and lots of news about
7.4, we’ll also be sharing the detail we mentioned about the road
ahead, answering your questions and starting the process of
introducing the Blackboard team to the ANGEL community.  If you have
questions in advance, please send them to us at
aucfaq at angellearning.com.

In closing, thank you again for your institution’s partnership to
date, for your openness to this new chapter for ANGEL and Blackboard
and for the input we hope you’ll share as we move forward.

Sincerely,

Christopher Clapp

President & CEO

ANGEL Learning



Michael Chasen

President & CEO

Blackboard




-- 
Joseph Hardin
School of Information
University of Michigan
Sakai Foundation
734-763-3266