Intel Steps Up E-learning Efforts With Kno Deal

A startup called Kno once made headlines by introducing an education-oriented tablet–just as Apple’s iPad was turning into a juggernaut. That idea didn’t last long, but its refashioned business became attractive enough to win over Intel. The chip giant late Friday said it is buying Kno and taking on its 95 employees, the latest step in bolstering an Intel sideline that includes designs for education-oriented laptops and a tablet aimed at the classroom. Kno, led by CEO Osman Rashid, was founded in 2009 and first showed off its hardware at a 2010 All Things D conference. The device, which started at $599 began shipping that December, featured a larger screen than the iPad and was announced along with an option for a dual-screen configuration that would be held vertically, like an open book.

  

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen–whose firm was a major Kno investor–says Rashid was among the first to foresee the impending tablet revolution and its impact on education. “He nailed the tablet phenomenon nine months before the iPad came out,” Andreessen recalls. Read more: INTEL