Blackwell’s, the UK’s leading specialist and academic bookseller, and Kortext, a world leading personal study platform and eTextbook provider, have reached an agreement that will see Kortext acquire Blackwell’s eLearning business. In addition, the two companies will partner in delivering one of the best digital learning content solutions to Blackwell’s university and student customers across the UK.

The agreement comes at a time where Blackwell has experienced significant growth in its core bookshop, ecommerce and corporate channels, while Kortext, in a few short years, has become the clear leader in supplying digital learning solutions, content and eTextbooks to UK universities. Kortext is also seeing significant global adoption serving millions of students at colleges and universities across the globe.

David Prescott, CEO of Blackwell’s commented,

The eLearning market is growing and we are committed to providing our customers with both the print textbooks they require as well as access to the best personal study platform in the market. We believe that we are best able to achieve this by partnering with Kortext rather than continuing to invest in a separate platform. Alongside our shops, our ecommerce platform and our strong corporate and institutional relationships this new partnership will help us provide the best solutions and service to our customers as they transition from print to digital usage as part of everyday learning.

James Gray, CEO of Kortext commented,

This announcement builds on our determination to work in partnership with the education sector to provide the broadest access to digital learning resources and the best student experience in using those resources. Blackwell’s has an outstanding academic reputation and has been supplying students and universities with textbooks for nearly 139 years. Through this partnership Blackwell’s can now deliver the evermore innovative content solutions their customers expect from them, regardless of format. Many of the leading universities in the world such as Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh are Blackwell’s customers and we are excited to partner with them during this time of incredible change in education.