Barnes & Noble.com To Offer Courses Online

Posted on May 30, 2000

Barnes & Noble.com has announced that it has acquired a minority stake in notHarvard, a developer of online branded universities. The companies plan to create a Barnes & Noble University, a free online education resource offering thousands of online learning courses to Barnes & Noble.com's customers through the bookseller's website beginning this summer.

Barnes & Noble.com is one of several new investors recently announced by notHarvard.com, which raised $26 million in its second round of venture funding. Other investors include Adam Dell's Impact Ventures, Merrill Lynch KECALP, CenterPoint Ventures and Sanchez Capital Partners. The round was led by Austin Ventures and included previous investor TL Ventures.

Customers will be able to register for courses at Barnes & Noble University online beginning this summer. The courses, which will be offered free of charge, are scheduled to begin in mid-July. Under the agreement, Barnes & Noble.com also becomes the primary distributor of notHarvard.com's eduCommerce course materials across its network of branded online universities.

``We consider distance learning as a natural extension of Barnes & Noble.com's core business,'' said Steve Riggio, vice chairman of Barnes & Noble.com. ``The Internet is clearly a very large commercial medium but its great promise is to become a portal for the sharing of knowledge and content. Our plan is to create an exciting learning environment where many courses will be based upon the best books in the field. We additionally intend to invite the authors of those books to become instructors, offering them the ability to publish additional content in both electronic form as well as through print on demand technology. By partnering with notHarvard.com to create Barnes & Noble University, we bring together the recognized expert in eduCommerce and the best online bookseller to provide a completely new and unique learning opportunity to Barnes & Noble.com's millions of customers.''

``Barnes & Noble.com is not only a key strategic corporate investor but also shares notHarvard.com's vision for the expansion and enhancement of eduCommerce,'' said Judith Bitterli, chief executive officer of notHarvard.com. ``We believe the focus, reach and the power of the Barnes & Noble network combined with notHarvard.com's leadership in the creation of online universities will provide a powerful catalyst for exciting developments in online education.''