Wiley announced they are acquiring Zyante, a provider of computer science and STEM education courseware, for $56 million in cash. Founded in 2012, Zyante’s zyBooks platform has served over 500,000 students across 500 institutions. The company was expecting sales of $14 million in 2019, which would be a 37% increase over 2018 (or sales of about $10.2 million). Wiley says the new platform “will become an essential component of Wiley’s differentiated digital learning experience” and along with and, when combined with their May acquisition of Knewton “will power lower-cost, higher-impact education across Wiley’s education business.”
Separately, the Tennessee governor’s office announced that their Department of Economic and Community Development is supporting Ingram’s Lightning Source — which will invest $22 million to create an additional print-on-demand facility in Jackson, TN. That POD operation will operate alongside the distribution center Ingram acquired from Perseus in 2016. The state says the new plant will add 150 jobs over the next three years.
Sunday’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver spotlighted the misery of working in Amazon warehouses: “We used to have to drive to stores to buy things. Now those things are brought directly to us, and they’re somehow cheaper. The didn’t just happen with a clever algorithm. It created a system that squeezes the people lowest on the ladder, hard.”