5 Reasons Microsoft will buy Blackboard

I saw this article on Inside Higher Ed recently. It's an interesting concept, but I don't really buy into it. Blackboard it toxic at the moment. Many people who use it absolutely despise it. Microsoft already has image problems, having one more image problem is not something that they need to fix their brand.

If Microsoft were to buy Blackboard, they would probably buy them and end-of-life all current Blackboard products with the exception of Angel - that product seems to be loved by the people who use it, however this is unlikely. Many customers would probably prefer to see upgrades to BlackBoard Vista and CE to make them more intuitive rather than switch to another product altogether since there are course conversion costs (converting existing templates, training people, training faculty, troubleshooting, etc.), and if Microsoft were to kill off the troubled children of Blackboard this could compound on their existing image problems.

If Microsoft were to enter the LMS/CMS arena, I see them creating something from scratch, that ties into the Visual Studio, Windows Server, Zune, Windows Mobile arena.




http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/5_reasons_microsoft_will_buy_blackboard

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