COURSESMART: InsideHigherEd has the details on the acquisition of San Mateo, CA-based CourseSmart by Vital Source, an e-textbook platform owned by Ingram Content Group with over 4 million faculty and student users. Coursesmart was founded in 2007 by Macmillan, Cengage, Wiley, McGraw-Hill and Pearson as an online directory where professors and students can find, evaluate and rent digital textbooks. CourseSmart currently has 1.5 million faculty accounts. The article suggests the sale could be a sign that the big publishers are "backing away from the e-textbook industry to focus on other digital products." Here's the press release.
