One of Buffalo’s largest technology teams will be undergoing another significant business combination.
Last year, Campus Labs was acquired by a larger ed-tech firm, Anthology, based in Florida.
Now Anthology is merging with a leading higher education software provider, Blackboard.
Anthology will maintain its 40,000-square-foot office in downtown Buffalo, where it has about 150 employees. The company offers a hybrid work model and expects that to continue going forward.
“Anthology’s footprint in Buffalo does not change with this merger announcement and we expect that it will yield growth opportunities for all our office locations,” a spokeswoman said.
Anthology’s local employee footprint is down from about 200 at the time of the summer 2020 merger. The top local Anthology employee is chief product officer J.D. White.
Anthology’s Florida-based chairman and CEO, Jim Milton, will serve in the same roles of the combined companies. The combined entity will be majority owned by private equity firm Veritas Capital. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021.
Anthology’s technology team in Buffalo has an important legacy. Campus Labs was co-founded in 2001 by Eric Reich and Michael Weisman. The startup won the University at Buffalo’s first Panasci competition and went on to become one of Western New York’s first successful tech startups. Campus Labs was first sold for $38 million in 2012 and has gone through a succession of private equity transactions since that time.
Weisman moved to Southern California several years ago. Reich stayed on as Campus Labs president until last summer’s merger. He is now co-chair of the state’s Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, and serves on the boards of 43North, TechBuffalo and Ted’s Hot Dogs.
