IDG Books Acquires Hungry Minds

Posted on August 11, 2000

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. has announced the acquisition of Hungry Minds in order to accelerate IDGB's online knowledge offerings. Hungry Minds, founded in April 1999, is an online learning marketplace that provides over 17,000 courses and learning resources from its partnerships with leading companies, universities, professional and training organizations.

Hungry Minds provides a proprietary publishing architecture, an elearning database and online learning solutions for corporations, individuals and students in a variety of subject areas. Hungry Mind's distribution and content partners include Amazon.com, Dow Jones, eMind.com, Kaplan, Monster.com, NYU Online, Smart Money, UC Berkeley Extension and UCLA Extension.

``The Hungry Minds acquisition provides IDGB and its strategic partners the opportunity to expedite the distribution of IDGB branded content across a leading edge e-learning platform in a fast-growing market,'' said John Kilcullen, Chairman and CEO of IDGB. ``The combination of IDGB's trusted brands, diverse content base and offline distribution network coupled with Hungry Minds' online learning expertise creates a compelling e-learning and marketing solution for a wide variety of current and new customers,'' continued Kilcullen.

Stuart Skorman, CEO and Founder of Hungry Minds, said, ``This new e-learning platform offers customers the best lifelong learning brands in the content business. Together, we can move faster to satisfy the expanding demand for more comprehensive e-learning solutions and customized promotional opportunities. This is also a great opportunity for the valued team at Hungry Minds who share IDGB's vision of providing trusted, robust online courses and content for every taste and budget.''