Personalized learning products developer IXL Learning has acquired Rosetta Stone, a technology-based language education platform, the San Mateo, California-based company has announced recently.
Founded in 1992 and based in Arlington, Virginia, Rosetta Stone is dedicated to changing people’s lives through the power of language education. It uses advanced digital technology to help all types of learners read, write and speak more than 30 languages, including several endangered languages. Rosetta’s learning method uses deeply engaging, real-world scenarios to help users develop fluency, and TruAccent speech recognition leverages machine learning to perfect learners’ accents.
Rosetta Stone also offers coaching and live lessons, which virtually connect learners with native speakers to practice their pronunciation and grammar skills. The company has empowered more than one million people across 150 countries.
Commenting on the acquisition, Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning, said in a statement,
“I firmly believe in learning languages. It’s the most direct route towards communicating with a wider range of people, developing a life-long appreciation for other cultures and preparing ourselves for an increasingly interconnected society. The acquisition of Rosetta Stone’s iconic brand greatly accelerates our efforts to teach languages to learners from all walks of life.”
Schools and businesses also use Rosetta Stone to prepare students and employees for success in multicultural environments. The platform empowers educators to enhance academic outcomes with programs aligned to state language proficiency standards. Rosetta Stone also serves over 2,000 leading brands, including Uber, GM, and Twitter, with training tools that immerse employees in new languages.
Matt Hulett, President of Rosetta Stone, said,
“Rosetta Stone has worked tirelessly throughout the past 30 years to build a world-class company, and it’s time to take the next bold step towards transforming how people learn new languages. Joining IXL will allow Rosetta Stone to leverage our combined resources and make an even greater impact as people pursue language learning in record numbers.”
Founded in 1998, IXL Learning is an integrated learning platform that supports personalized learning in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish. Featuring a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, the IXL Real-Time Diagnostic, personalized guidance and actionable analytics, IXL helps improve learning outcomes for all students. Its platform is used by 12 million students (1 in 5 US students) and by schools in 95 of the 100 top districts, and many more around the globe.
IXL has been on an acquisition spree over the last few years, with Rosetta Stone as the latest. Last month, February 2021, it acquired Wyzant, a marketplace for online tutoring. The company also acquired Vocabulary.com, a leading educational destination for improving literacy through vocabulary building in March 2020; Education.com, an online resource serving millions of teachers and parents, in 2019; and ABCya, creator of educational computer games and apps for kids, in 2018.
