Rosetta Stone buys language-learning startup Livemocha for $8.5 million

- Apr 02, 2013 11:30 am

Skift Take

Rosetta Stone remains the stalwart of language learning platforms, and rather than compete by innovating internally, it’s allowing the new crop of startups to ripen and then snatching them up one by one.

— Samantha Shankman

Rosetta Stone has just acquired Seattle-based online language-learning community Livemocha for $8.5 million in cash. Livemocha has one of the largest online language-learning communities in the world, boasting over 16 million members from over 195 different countries.

Rosetta Stone will likely use Livemocha’s cloud platform to offer its language packages online — they were once only available via disc set, with a complimentary iPad app.

Rosetta Stone also expects the Livemocha acquisition to help accelerate geographic expansion, as Livemocha’s community is quite global and has a high concentration of users in China, Russia and South America.