One of the best ways to develop a picture of any company is with a SWOT analysis -- a look at a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Today I'd like to focus on Blackboard (Nasdaq: BBBB), a provider of enterprise software applications and other related services to the education industry, which recently posted net income of $5 million -- or $0.15 per share -- in its first-quarter report.
Strengths
- Proprietary intellectual property.
- Tenured leadership, with extensive experience in education and technology: President and CEO Michael Chasen founded the company in 1997, has wide-ranging experience in educational consulting.
- Successful acquisition record: Acquired NTI Group, ANGEL Learning, and Saf-T-Net in 2007, 2009, and 2010, respectively.
- Continued product and service innovation.
Weaknesses
- Aggressive acquisition strategy as opposed to organic growth.
- Recent share dilution.
- No patent protection on technology.
Opportunities
- Opportunity to increase already high retention rates from clients.
- Opportunity to increase switching costs for clients.
- Up- and cross-sell opportunities from base clients.
- Industry consolidation.
- Growing international clientele.
Threats
- Reduced education budgets.
- High switching costs for prospective clients.
- Competition from open-source products.
What parts of Blackboard's SWOT need more detail? Fill in the blanks by using the comments section below.
