Kno Bought Out by Intel
Intel has acquired Kno, the education software and e-textbook platform developer.
Kno is primarily known for its Kno Textbook platform, which offers access to a catalog of more than 200,000 electronic textbooks from major textbook publishers, including Cengage Learning,
Wiley, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, among many others. Textbooks are available for both K-12 and higher education, and the platform is accessible through the Web or through platform-specific applications, which support Android, iOS, and Windows.
The company originally made headlines back in 2010, when it had planned to release large-screen tablets purpose-built for displaying and interacting with electronic textbooks. The plan back then called for single or dual 14.1-inch, 1,440 x 900-pixel touchscreens that would be able to display full-scale textbooks, videos, and other multimedia and support notetaking, educational apps, Web browsing, and content sharing — all starting at $599. The concept generated considerable buzz at the time but was ultimately never to be.
Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel, invested $20 million in the company in back 2011 with the aim of collaborating "to address the growing interactive and 1-to-1 student learning environments by exploring opportunities to make Kno's touch-based applications available for Intel's educational platforms."
Now, with the acquisition, Kno will become a part of Intel Education, which is focused on creating integrated learning tools — hardware, applications and content.
According to Lisa Malloy, a spokesperson for Intel, the acquisition significantly boosts Intel's access to educational content. Intel will also leverage its strengths to extend that content further.
"One of Intel's key focus areas is education. Up until now, Intel has had a limited investment in content, which we believe is the key pillar to transform education around the world. Through this acquisition, Intel will be able to scale Kno's vast content platform, library and capabilities to new levels," Malloy told Campus Technology. "The acquisition of Kno immediately boosts Intel Education Solutions' global digital content library to more than 225,000 higher education and K-12 titles through existing partnerships with 75 educational publishers. One of big interests is to help Kno expand globally. They have had a strong U.S. presence and there is a real opportunity for international expansion. We have extended offers to the majority of Kno employees to retain their talent."
She added that Intel's interest in Kno extends to a "variety of education their products, including interactive e-reader and e-textbooks, in-class social sharing and assessment tools, book license-management and distribution and complete school solutions including learning analytics."
Further details can be found in a blog post by John Galvin, general manager of Intel Education.