Canadian e-book software and firmware provider Evident Point, which has a separate development team in Moscow, has been acquired by LANIT, a major Russian company providing a diversified range of systems integration and other IT services. Neither the terms of the transaction nor general future plans of the two companies were disclosed.
LANIT President and owner Georgiy Gens unveiled at least part of the motive behind the acquisition in an exchange with Russian business daily Vedomosti.”Evident Point offers solutions that render electronic books more interactive and understandable, making them perfect for school and self-education,” he said. The same technology can be used to run tests and play multimedia content on electronic books that expand application capacity to a variety of fields, from education to interactive user guides for complex equipment, Gens explained.
This spring, Evident Point released Active Textbook, software that converts standard textbooks into interactive multimedia courses.
LANIT is involved in a $50 million Moscow city government program to supply schools with Apple notebooks. Evident Point’s technology could be used to favor pupil and teacher interaction with Apple products, commented Mandriva chairman Dmitry Komissarov to Vedomosti.