Washington

WASHINGTON-BASED Blackboard helped launch the education technology industry in the mid-1990s. By the early 2000s, its software connected students and professors with textbooks, course materials and each other at nearly every college in the country. Its stock peaked in 2007, at US$49, more than triple its opening price on the Nasdaq in 2005.

Today, after 20 years of innovation, the once red-hot industry is at a crossroads as growth slows and a handful of companies vie to unseat Blackboard and grab market share. In 2006, Blackboard held as much as 90 per cent of the learning management system market share, according to industry reports. Now Blackboard's market share has dwindled to 44 per cent.