QuickWire: E-Textbook Provider CourseSmart Is Bought by Ingram

A big fish in the education-media world has been swallowed by an even bigger fish.

CourseSmart, a major provider of electronic textbook content, has been acquired by the Ingram Content Group, a media company that supplies books and music to thousands of retailers across the world. CourseSmart was created in 2007 by the “big five” textbook companies as an online marketplace for their digital content.

The Ingram group also distributes educational content, through Vital Source Technologies, a subsidiary. Together, the companies say they will be able to provide “more inventory for faculty and course designers, and greater scalability for content creators and resellers,” according to a news release.