B&N buys writing skills firm for £45m

Barnes & Noble Education has bought writing skills services company Student Brands for $58.5m (£45m).

Student Brands is a subscription-based education company which uses a proprietary content management system, the Content Brain, to sift through information to provide possible answers for a student’s question. According to B&N Education, one in four higher education students access the platform every year.

It also focuses on study tools, writing help and literary research, which Kanuj Malhotra, c.o.o of digital education at Barnes & Noble Education (BNED), said would help tackle a lack of writing proficiency in the US, which is one of the "most significant challenges in our education system," Malhotra said.

The company generates revenue mostly though its subscription services and digital advertising. It boasts more than 20 million unique monthly users across its various digital properties inclusing123HelpMe.com Bartleby.com and StudyMode.com in the US as well as others in Brazil, France and Mexico.

Malhotra said: "The acquisition of Student Brands enables BNED to maintain and expand our leadership position in the distribution and provision of educational services and content.

“The lack of writing proficiency is one of the most significant challenges in our education system, and Student Brands provides a significant opportunity to serve this market with solutions that improve student performance...The addition of Student Brands and its nearly 100,000 subscribers will enable us to offer products and services directly to our current student base and beyond."

The transaction builds on B&N’s “strong growth momentum” in digital learning and aims to support partner schools' retention efforts by helping students and teachers "embrace technology tools that improve writing proficiency".

"As student demand for extra help with writing and study tools continues to grow, we are delighted to be joining forces with a company whose scale, resources and expertise will help drive further innovation in our products and expand our addressable market," said Thomas Swalla, c.e.o of Student Brands. "Barnes & Noble Education shares our mission to provide students with innovative solutions to solve a growing range of academic challenges."

He added: "We are confident that this is an ideal combination and we are thrilled to begin working with our new colleagues."

In August 2015, B&N completed the separation of its Retail and College businesses, with Barnes & Noble Education, Inc is now an independent public company and the parent of Barnes & Noble College.