Ingram’s Vital Source Expands E-textbook Offering With Acquisition of VPG Integrated Media

(Press Release) NASHVILLE, TN – Ingram Content Group Inc. today announced that Vital Source has grown its e-textbook offering with the acquisition of VPG Integrated Media (VPG), a leading developer of award-winning enhanced e-textbook applications, interactive learning objects and e-whiteboard content, and state-of-the-art video, audio, and animation production services for educational publishers.

The acquisition of VPG has expanded the ability of Vital Source to further enhance the digital learning experience. Vital Source and VPG, together, present an unmatched e-textbook offering that meets the demands of publishers, educators, and students in this new era of learning opportunities. The joining of VPG’s ability to turn a textbook into an interactive experience, Vital Source’s proven e-textbook platform and its strong relationships with publishers, institutions and students will streamline the creation and distribution of digital books globally.

“The growth of innovative digital content and the rising adoption rate of tablet devices are allowing students to truly interact with textbooks in a new way,” said Kent Freeman, President, Vital Source Technologies, Inc. “Vital Source has always been a market leader in e-textbooks. The acquisition of VPG puts us even further ahead by giving us the ability to not only deliver but to also enhance publisher content with rich media and interactive applications, a requirement for educational publishers to succeed in today’s higher-ed environment.”

VPG works with both publishers and educators to create and enhance educational content. VPG clients include Cambridge University Press, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, Houghton Mifflin, John Wiley, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, Pearson Education, Sage Publications and Scholastic, many of the same publishers that currently use Ingram’s VitalSource® platform for content distribution. VPG serves both the K-12 and Higher-Ed publishing segments.

“VPG has built cutting-edge and award-winning interactive and rich-media applications that have fundamentally changed how the leaders in publishing create and enhance content,” said Chip Price, President and CEO, VPG Integrated Media. “The combination of Ingram’s leading position in the market for both physical, digital and e-textbook content distribution and VPG’s applications give the industry an unparalleled integrated solution to create, distribute and then connect feature-rich content with users.”