Selling PowerSchool a mistake
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 25, 2006 at 1:59am
Apple plans to sell PowerSchool, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary that develops student information systems for K-12 school districts, to Pearson Assessments. That would be a mistake.
The deal will take effect June 1. PowerSchool was acquired by Apple in 2001 for about $62 million stock, but, according to some reports, it’s not been profitable.
While it would be nice if PowerSchool were making oodles of money, it doesn’t have to do so to be successful. Consider it much like Apple initially viewed the Apple Retail Stores: if they make money, great, but their main purpose is as advertising and exposure tools. The same holds true for PowerSchool, but in the education, rather than consumer, space.
Here at Macsimum, I’ve said that Apple should bundle PowerSchool with every Xserve that Apple sales to educational institutions and pick up the service, support, upgrades, and consulting as the revenue streams. PowerSchool could be the iTunes for for Xserves in schools—driving Xserve sales. That strategy works and is the reasons that Apple makes the vast majority of their software—to drive hardware sales. Then there’s the reason that Apple CEO said the company purchased PowerSchool in 2001: “Apple has a legacy of helping teachers teach and students learn. We are now expanding that mission to include helping schools run more effectively.”
It would be a shame if Apple gave up any strategic advantages in the education market now that it’s firing on all cylinders.
Thoughts? Write me at daseller@earthlink.net
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
