Blackboard Offers Improved Solution for Corporate Learning on Force.com, Salesforce.com's Enterprise Cloud Platform

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Dreamforce 2010 -– Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB), a global leader in education technology, today announced plans for an improved learning management solution for corporations and other learning focused organizations that will emphasize training for sales teams. The announcement will be made today at Dreamforce 2010, the cloud computing event of the year.

To support the improved solution, Blackboard will develop a new application on Force.com, salesforce.com's enterprise cloud computing platform that will add a range of administrative capabilities to its flagship learning platform, Blackboard Learn™.

Already noted for its flexibility, ease of use and low cost of ownership, Blackboard Learn will gain stronger certification, reporting and tracking abilities commonly associated with more complex and costly corporate learning management systems. As a result, customers will be able to more closely align employee learning and development programs with key corporate initiatives and priorities and ensure that they have a larger, more measureable impact on employee behavior, business goals and company performance.

"This new application combines the strengths of leaders in education and cloud computing to provide an improved solution for corporate learning and training that better supports business goals," said Michael Chasen, president and chief executive officer at Blackboard.

"Force.com provides the fastest way to bring Blackboard's leading learning and training platform to the cloud. Now Blackboard's customers will be armed with the tools and capabilities of the next generation of cloud-based learning and training," said Kendall Collins, chief marketing officer, salesforce.com.

Blackboard Learn is currently used by thousands of institutions worldwide including hundreds of corporations of all sizes, government agencies, nonprofits and associations. The platform includes a range of powerful capabilities, social learning tools and web 2.0 innovations to more effectively engage and develop learners, and can be enabled for use on mobile devices with a range of native applications for smartphones and other devices including the Apple® iPad™.

"Blackboard offers a flexible option for corporate learning that is highly focused on ease of use and learner engagement," said Josh Bersin, president and chief executive officer, Bersin & Associates. "Combining the strengths of Blackboard and salesforce.com will give sales and service teams an easy to use learning platform designed for both formal and informal learning. Training is one of the largest segments of corporate learning and this solution will greatly expand the availability of training offerings for small and mid-sized businesses."

"With deep roots in education, our understanding of how knowledge is acquired and shared in support of business goals has helped us grow quickly in corporate and professional learning in the last few years," said Tim Hill, president of Blackboard's Professional Education group. "Working with salesforce.com, we can quickly bring a more robust offering to a wider range of organizations, departments and teams that seek a more flexible solution."

Chasen will join salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff on stage today at Dreamforce 2010. The keynote will be available online at www.salesforce.com/live beginning at approximately 9 a.m. Pacific time.

For more information about Blackboard's work to support corporate learning, please visit http://blackboard.com/Solutions-by-Market/Corporate.aspx.

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 the Force.com Platform and AppExchange 2:

Force.com is the only proven enterprise platform for building and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com platform powers the Salesforce CRM <http://www.salesforce.com/>  (http://www.salesforce.com/) applications, more than 1,000 ISV partner applications like those from CA Technologies, FinancialForce.com and Fujitsu, and 185,000 custom applications used by salesforce.com's 87,200 customers such as Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel. Force.com also enables developers to make any enterprise app social by leveraging the social collaboration components including profiles, status updates, and real-time feeds available with Chatter.

Applications built on the Force.com platform can be easily distributed to the entire cloud computing community through the salesforce.com AppExchange 2 marketplace http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/, now featuring the ChatterExchange.

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 November 5, 2010 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of December 8, 2010. 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 December 8, 2010.

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SOURCE Blackboard Inc.