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O’Reilly Media has bought Pearson’s 50% stake in digital learning library Safari Books Online, making Safari a wholly owned subsidiary of O’Reilly.
Safari was developed by media and technology company O’Reilly in 2001 and jointly launched with Pearson.
Although Pearson has sold its stake, it will continue to provide resources for the subscription platform, which offers more than 25,000 books, videos and courses on technology and business topics from more than 200 publishers and imprints, including O’Reilly itself.
Tim O’Reilly, founder and c.e.o. of O’Reilly Media, said: "I'm delighted that Safari is now once again a wholly owned O'Reilly company. In our 13-year joint venture with Pearson, it has grown into the rich content platform I envisioned back in 2000, when O'Reilly created a groundbreaking but rudimentary service to bring books online.
“Pearson joining with us was key to our goal of making this a multi-publisher initiative."
The move will not result in any changes to Safari’s products, staff, offices or operations, O’Reilly said in a blog post about the purchase.
A Pearson spokesperson explained: "We originally pursued the Safari joint venture with O'Reilly Media to bring IT professionals a unique, convenient and effective way to stay on top of their skills in a continually-evolving and demanding sector. We're really proud to have grown this into the successful entity it is today which underlines our unswerving commitment to improving employability and progression. Having achieved what we set out to do we're happy to see O'Reilly take on full ownership, and will continue to work together in the future."
Safari c.e.o. Andrew Savikas said: “For more than a decade, Safari has helped bring the knowledge from leading publishers to millions of people at many of the world’s most innovative companies.
“Deepening our relationship with O’Reilly gives us the chance to do even more to connect people and organisations with the content and experts to help them do exceptional work.”
To mark the purchase, Safari is offering new members its Safari’s Pro package, which offers unlimited access to content, for 50% off. The offer expires at 2p.m. EDT today (7p.m. GMT).