BBBB Blackboard (MM)

Blackboard Reports Record Growth for ASP Services in 2004; More than 80 New Clients Turn to Blackboard in 2004 for Hosting WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBB) announced today that more than 80 new clients from the United States and abroad turned to Blackboard(R) ASP Services in 2004 to host e- learning programs. Universities, secondary schools, textbook and content publishers are among the clients to power their online learning initiatives with Blackboard's ASP Services. With the latest additions, more than 300 learning institutions, in 41 states domestically and 15 international countries are hosted by Blackboard ASP. The hosted systems are currently serving more than two million students and faculty who have produced more than 10 terabytes of course content and material -- exceeding the total digital capacity of print collections of the Library of Congress. "E-learning applications are now consistently rated as the top three applications that are pivotal to the academic mission of institutions," said Ahmar Abbas, ASP Director at Blackboard. "With Blackboard hosting the mission critical e-learning application, schools have greater ability to focus on their core values of developing and delivering the best online teaching and learning environment possible. They can leave the technical and application issues up to experts at Blackboard and feel secure that their systems are being proactively monitored and maintained 24 hours a day, seven days a week." Blackboard ASP hosts each institution on a dedicated, secure and fully customizable infrastructure. Schools are provided the ability to integrate their commercial or homegrown student information systems with the Blackboard ASP hosted e-learning application through a secure virtual private network (VPN). Blackboard ASP also provides the flexibility for institutions to deploy more than 120 different Blackboard Building Blocks(TM) on their hosted system. By hosting with Blackboard, clients gain access to secure servers and routine maintenance checks, nightly back-ups, a dedicated 24/7 operations and engineering staff, climate control and fire suppression systems for servers and predictable costs which are often less than the cost of internal hosting. Brooklands College in the United Kingdom, University of Tennessee Martin and Knoxville and seven campuses of the California State University system are among the learning institutions that power their online and blended education programs through Blackboard ASP. "We're very happy with our ASP Services partnership," said Amir Dabirian, Director of Internet Technologies at California State University, Fullerton. "With the success on our campus, we've quickly realized that not only is it more secure and reliable to host with Blackboard, but it's also more cost effective. With hosting off our plate, we really appreciate being able to focus on what we do best: e-learning initiatives." About Blackboard Inc. Blackboard is a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the education industry. The Company's product line consists of five software applications bundled in two suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite(TM) and the Blackboard Commerce Suite(TM). Blackboard's clients include colleges, universities, schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff in North America, Europe and Asia. 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 most recent 10-Q filed with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of February 15, 2005. 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 15, 2005. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. DATASOURCE: Blackboard Inc. CONTACT: Blackboard Public Relations Manager: Melissa Chotiner of Blackboard Inc., +1-202-463-4860 ext. 2404, or Media Contact: Stacey Finkel of DBC Public Relations Experts, +1-202-298-7600 ext. 219, , for Blackboard Inc. Web site: http://www.blackboard.com/

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