Microsoft is acquiring the DataSense data analytics platform from San Francisco-based education tech company BrightBytes, aiming to bring data analytics tools to schools around the country.
DataSense is a platform to help schools collect, manage and use data efficiently. Integrating DataSense into Microsoft’s suite of educational products “will help institutions — and school and district IT leaders in particular — better collect, manage and explicitly control access to their data within Azure to help drive the best possible learning outcomes for their students,” Microsoft General Manager of Education Strategy and Platforms Steve Liffick wrote in a blog post.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft is not acquiring BrightBytes as a company, just the DataSense platform and the data management team that works on it.
News of the deal comes just a week after Microsoft introduced a variety of new low-cost, education-oriented laptops from its partners as well as tools to help students and teachers work together. Perhaps the most interesting device to come out of the big reveal was the $289 Lenovo 300E. Students can actually write on the screen of the two-in-one device using a No. 2 pencil.
Education has become a highly competitive arena among the world’s top tech companies. Windows for years has been the dominant operating system in the education market outside the U.S., accounting for about 60 percent of device shipments as of the end of 2017. In the U.S., Microsoft is losing market share to Google Chrome OS-powered devices.
