VitalSource Acquires Verba

VitalSource Acquires Verba 

Combined Company will create More Opportunities for Student Cost Savings

Raleigh, N.C. (April 3, 2017) – VitalSource Technologies LLC, Ingram Content Group’s global leader in digital education content delivery, has acquired Verba Software, Inc., a San Francisco-based company dedicated to using technology to support campus stores and help students save money on course materials.

“We are happy to welcome the people, technology and ideas of Verba to Ingram,” said Shawn Morin, CEO and President, Ingram Content Group. “They’ve accomplished much on behalf of students, and we look forward to what they will continue to do for higher education as part of VitalSource.”

Founded in 2008 by Jared Pearlman, Ryan Petersen, and Michael Ragalie, Verba grew as a start-up from a student government project at Harvard and later began collaborating with independent college stores to tackle textbook affordability through radical transparency. Currently Verba works with 350 colleges and universities in the United States, serving 3.1 million students each term.

“The Verba team has built an incredible following,” said VitalSource COO Pep Carrera. “They’ve worked with us for years, and are one of the few companies that I see consistently delivering high value technology products to colleges, stores, faculty and students alike.”

VitalSource and Verba have collaborated through Verba’s Connect service to help institutions implement inclusive-access programs that ensure first-day access to learning materials at more affordable prices. Verba’s adoptions management will showcase affordability and e-texts to faculty. Together, VitalSource and Verba will create a complete solution for implementing and managing inclusive-access programs that put campus stores at the center of the experience.

“For nine years, we’ve pushed our company to the limits to deliver more affordable textbooks to students,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of Verba, “and, with the VitalSource merger, the effort remains the same, it’s the limits that we’ve redefined.”

In February, Ingram Content Group and VitalSource announced their intent to have VitalSource acquire Verba at the Independent College Bookstore Association conference.

About VitalSource | www.vitalsource.com
VitalSource Technologies LLC, part of Ingram Content Group LLC, is improving the learning experience by making it easier to create and deliver effective and affordable content. The preferred choice among educational institutions and companies for digital learning materials, VitalSource® helps over 1,000 educational content providers create and deliver seamless interactive learning experiences through its exclusive Bookshelf® platform to millions of learners at 7,000 institutions. Bookshelf users opened more than 18 million digital textbooks last year and read more than 2.4 billion pages. Follow VitalSource on Twitter at @VitalSource.

About Verba | www.verbasoftware.com
Founded in 2008, Verba is a San Francisco-based company that works with colleges and universities to reduce the cost of course materials by elevating transparency and access. Verba offers web-based tools for faculty to select course materials, bookstores to acquire low-cost learning materials and for students to easily compare prices and gain on-time access. Verba’s Inclusive Access management tools, including Verba Connect, leverage Verba’s proprietary pricing analysis model to alleviate administrative manual processes and ensure every student has digital access to course materials at a low price on the first day of classes. Verba works with more than 350 institutions of varying sizes to reach over 3.1 million students each term.

Contact: Elizabeth Fielding (615) 321-3110 / Elizabeth@tsgnashville.com