Deepens Investment in Student Writing Services Franchise
Expands Writing Services into Plagiarism, Revision and AI-based
Auto-Scoring
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Barnes
& Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED), a leading provider of
educational products and services solutions for higher education and
K-12, today announced that it has acquired PaperRater.com
(“PaperRater”), a leading website that offers students a suite of
writing services that includes a plagiarism checker, writing revision
tools and an AI-based auto-grading scoring system to help them improve
multiple facets of their writing.
Founded in 2009, PaperRater has more than 18 million submissions of
English language content, adding millions of pieces of new content each
year, from essays and dissertations to personal narratives and speeches,
and represents a significant expansion of BNED’s digital content
library. PaperRater’s operations will become part of the Company’s
Digital Student Solutions (“DSS”) business segment, and will further
strengthen its existing proprietary content database, as well as
significantly increase monetization opportunities for the websites
purchased in the Student Brands acquisition last August.
“Proficiency in writing continues to be a struggle for millions of
students in both high school and college, and is critical to success in
the workplace upon graduation,” said Kanuj Malhotra, President of
Digital Student Solutions for Barnes & Noble Education. “Our goal is to
provide services to students throughout the entire writing process.
PaperRater allows us to accelerate our plans to provide a ‘Triple
Play’ writing service that bundles plagiarism detection, writing
revision and essay auto-scoring capabilities to our existing and
prospective users as we build out our ecosystem of student services.
PaperRater bolsters capabilities of the Student Brands acquisition and
solves multiple pain points for an even larger addressable market of
students. Our acquisition strategy has demonstrated our ability to
capture synergies and deliver growth, and we expect similar results with
PaperRater.”
BNED acquired PaperRater on August 21, 2018 in an all-cash transaction.
The acquisition is expected to be accretive to BNED's EBITDA, Net Income
and Cash Flow in FY2019.
ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE EDUCATION, INC.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) is a leading
provider of higher education and K-12 educational products and
solutions. Through its Barnes & Noble College and MBS Textbook Exchange
segments, Barnes & Noble Education operates 1,437 physical and virtual
bookstores across the U.S., serving more than 6 million students and
faculty. Through its Digital Student Solutions segment, the Company
offers a suite of digital software, content and services including
direct-to-student study tools, serving approximately 100,000 subscribers
in more than 15 countries and receiving more than 20 million unique
monthly visitors to its sites. The Company also operates one of the
largest textbook wholesale distribution channels in the United States.
For more information please visit www.bned.com.
BNED companies include: Barnes
& Noble College Booksellers, LLC, MBS
Textbook Exchange, LLC, BNED
LoudCloud, LLC, Student
Brands, LLC, and Promoversity,
LLC. General information on Barnes & Noble Education may be obtained
by visiting the Company's corporate website: www.bned.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and
information relating to us and our business that are based on the
beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information
currently available to our management. When used in this communication,
the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,”
“plan,” “will,” “forecasts,” “projections,” and similar expressions, as
they relate to us or our management, identify forward-looking
statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly
changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not
possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the
impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor,
or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially
from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In
light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events
and trends discussed in this press release may not occur and actual
results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or
implied in the forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our
current views with respect to future events, the outcome of which is
subject to certain risks, including, among others: general competitive
conditions, including actions our competitors and content providers may
take to grow their businesses; a decline in college enrollment or
decreased funding available for students; decisions by colleges and
universities to outsource their physical and/or online bookstore
operations or change the operation of their bookstores; the general
economic environment and consumer spending patterns; decreased consumer
demand for our products, low growth or declining sales; the strategic
objectives, successful integration, anticipated synergies, and/or other
expected potential benefits of various acquisitions, including MBS
Textbook Exchange, LLC and Student Brands, LLC, may not be fully
realized or may take longer than expected; the integration of MBS
Textbook Exchange, LLC’s operations into our own may also increase the
risk of our internal controls being found ineffective; implementation of
our digital strategy may not result in the expected growth in our
digital sales and/or profitability; risk that digital sales growth does
not exceed the rate of investment spend; the performance of our online,
digital and other initiatives, integration of and deployment of,
additional products and services including new digital channels, and
enhancements to higher education digital products, and the inability to
achieve the expected cost savings; our ability to successfully implement
our strategic initiatives including our ability to identify, compete for
and execute upon additional acquisitions and strategic investments;
risks associated with operation or performance of MBS Textbook Exchange,
LLC’s point-of-sales systems that are sold to college bookstore
customers; changes to purchase or rental terms, payment terms, return
policies, the discount or margin on products or other terms with our
suppliers; technological changes; risks associated with counterfeit and
piracy of digital and print materials; our international operations
could result in additional risks; our ability to attract and retain
employees; the risk of price reduction or change in format of course
materials by publishers, which could negatively impact revenues and
margin; risks associated with data privacy, information security and
intellectual property; trends and challenges to our business and in the
locations in which we have stores; non-renewal of managed bookstore,
physical and/or online store contracts and higher-than-anticipated store
closings; disruptions to our information technology systems,
infrastructure and data due to computer malware, viruses, hacking and
phishing attacks, resulting in harm to our business and results of
operations; disruption of or interference with third party web service
providers and our own proprietary technology; work stoppages or
increases in labor costs; possible increases in shipping rates or
interruptions in shipping service; product shortages, including risks
associated with merchandise sourced indirectly from outside the United
States; changes in domestic and international laws or regulations,
including U.S. tax reform, changes in tax rates, laws and regulations,
as well as related guidance; enactment of laws which may restrict or
prohibit our use of emails or similar marketing activities; the amount
of our indebtedness and ability to comply with covenants applicable to
any future debt financing; our ability to satisfy future capital and
liquidity requirements; our ability to access the credit and capital
markets at the times and in the amounts needed and on acceptable terms;
adverse results from litigation, governmental investigations,
tax-related proceedings, or audits; changes in accounting standards; and
the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the section titled “Risk
Factors” in Part I - Item 1A in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended April 28, 2018. Should one or more of these risks or
uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those
described as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or
planned. Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements
attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly
qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this
paragraph. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise after the date of this press release.
View source version on businesswire.com:
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Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.
Media:
Carolyn
J. Brown, 908-991-2967
Vice President
Corporate Communications
cbrown@bned.com
or
Investors:
Thomas
Donohue, 908-991-2966
Senior Vice President
Treasurer and
Investor Relations
tdonohue@bned.com
Source: Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.