Blackboard Wins Top Honor in Prepaid Card Awards

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced that its BlackboardPay™ solution was honored with the Paybefore Award, the world's most prestigious prepaid award. BlackboardPay, an open-loop prepaid card program that lets educational institutions deliver financial aid, student payroll and credit balances, was named one of the "Best Government-Funded Prepaid Programs" by the Paybefore Awards.  

The award winning solution from the Blackboard Transact™ platform, First Data and the Discover® Network is a card based disbursement program that addresses student needs with an emphasis on financial responsibility. The program gives students and staff immediate access to their funds without having to wait for paper check disbursements. Compared to other financial aid disbursement products, BlackboardPay protects students by eliminating overdraft exposure, related fees and PIN debit fees, while lowering fees for checks and card replacements.

"We are extremely honored to have BlackboardPay recognized by the global card community with the Paybefore Award," said David Marr, President of Blackboard Transact. "This award reaffirms that we have developed a disbursement solution for institutions that properly serves all students by respecting the intent of the federal programs and helps ensure that students have free and clear access to their financial aid and student payroll funds."

"Integrating BlackboardPay into our existing campus card program was not only easy, but has made financial aid disbursement for our students more flexible and secure," said Candice Smith at Jones County Junior College. "Students can now have immediate access to their funds, protection from excessive cardholder fees, all on their OneCard which provides campus commerce and security access. BlackboardPay allowed us to provide a single card solution for campus life, adding more value to our Jones OneCard. Student participation in BlackboardPay has led to remarkable growth in all OneCard transactions, including our stored value fund, Bobcat Bucks, where deposits and number of participants have quadrupled since launching BlackboardPay."

For the fifth year, the Paybefore Awards honor the best in the world in the prepaid industry. The awards are presented by Prepaid Media, whose Paybefore publications are the leading source of industry information for the global prepaid community. BlackboardPay will be honored with this award on March 7, 2011 at the Prepaid Expo conference, the world's largest convergence of prepaid professionals.  

"Paybefore Awards were created to celebrate the innovators in our industry who are using prepaid to transform payments with ever more efficient and accessible products," says Loraine DeBonis, Paybefore.

First Data provides program management and transaction processing for this Money Network® enabled solution. Funds are held in FDIC-insured accounts to help clients meet their Title IV obligations. The Discover® Network provides the vast and robust network across which BlackboardPay transactions travel. The breadth and reliability of the Discover network allows students to use their card anywhere the Discover Card is accepted across the globe.

For more information about BlackboardPay from Blackboard Transact, please visit http://www.blackboard.com/Transact. For more information on Paybefore, please visit http://www.paybefore.com.

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.

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-K filed on February 18, 2011 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of February 24, 2011. 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 February 24, 2011.

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.