News Corp. buys education technology company
News Corp. said that it had agreed to acquire 90 percent of education technology company Wireless Generation for 360 million dollars in cash.
"Wireless Generation is at the forefront of individualized, technology-based learning that is poised to revolutionize public education for a new generation of students," News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch said.
Education of children aged five through 18 is a "500-billion-dollar sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching," he said in a statement.
Established in 2000, Wireless Generation is a privately-held New York-based company serving more than 200,000 teachers and three million students across all 50 US states.
News Corp. said it provides mobile and Web software, data systems and professional services that enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver individualized instruction.
Wireless Generation, which has 400 employees, will become a News Corp. subsidiary and will be managed by its founder and chief executive, Larry Berger, News Corp. said.
Berger, Wireless Generation president and chief operating officer Josh Reibel, and its executive vice president and chief product officer Laurence Holt will collectively retain a 10 percent interest in the company, it said.
The purchase of Wireless Generation comes less than two weeks after Joel Klein resigned as chancellor of the New York City school system to join News Corp. as an executive vice president.
(c) 2010 AFP
