Apple has acquired education software company LearnSprout, according to Bloomberg. LearnSprout's software runs on Mac and Windows and is currently used in more than 2,500 school districts in 42 states in the U.S. Despite that kind of reach, LearnSprout is considered a startup, having raised more than $4 million dollars from VC firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Formation 8.
Apple confirmed the acquisition with its boilerplate statement Apple fans have seen dozens of times:
Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.
TechCrunch noted that The Information's founder and editor-in-chief Jessica Lessin tweeted that the deal closed in the summer, and that LearnSprout's investors just got their money.
Also, deal happened in July. What happens when someone tips off reporters to old deals for their business gain. https://t.co/qlRW2SWFli
— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) January 28, 2016
LearnSprout's thing is big data, as in analyzing large amounts of data and finding useful things in it, only LearnSprout does so for non-technical educators. In a promo screenshot on LearnSprout's website, for instance, LearnSprout's Dashboard has breakdowns of how many students need what to meet a school-wide goal.
LearnSprout promo image
It remains to be seen what Apple plans to do with LearnSprout, but Bloomberg and everyone else has leapt to the idea that Apple wants to bring the company's technology to iOS in order to make iPads more competitive and useful in schools. That appears to be reasonable speculation.
LearnSprout's website remains accessible as of this writing, though the company's blog is not currently available.