Rosetta Stone - Financials
The Rosetta Stone is a leading developer of software for learning languages in the world. Rosetta Stone revolves around a very simple idea: learning a language should be fun, easy, and most definitely effective. Rosetta Stone began their business with one man’s quest for a better way to learn a language. The company’s idea came to the world when Allen Stoltzfus began studying Russian in 1980s and became very frustrated with his slow progress. He knew there was a better way to learn a language, through immersion, which he had experienced years earlier while studying in Germany. He started to learn German not from sitting in the classroom, but from learning of being a part of the culture and the world of Germany. However, his idea had to wait for the technology to simulate the way that people learn their native language, such as with pictures, sounds in context, and with no translation. That time came in 1992 when Fairfield Language Technologies was founded in Harrisonburg, Va. Then Allen, the company’s Chairman and President, and his brother, Eugene Stolzfus, the company’s first Executive Vice President, combined their skills and create the structural and visual components of the program, which quickly went from a dream to reality. They called their product “Rosetta Stone,” named after the artifact that had unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics for linguists. The name certainly fits the product. The software unlocks language-learning success to millions of users around the world.
In 2003, Tom Adams was named CEO and his innovative leadership and passion for language-learning has taken the company global. In 2006, the company was sold to investment firms ABS Capital Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, and was renamed after their signature product. Before the offering, ABS owned 46% of Rosetta and Norwest owned 30%. In January 2006, to get the company off the ground, ABS provided $29 million and Norwest invested $19 million. Those investments have paid
In 2003, Tom Adams was named CEO and his innovative leadership and passion for language-learning has taken the company global. In 2006, the company was sold to investment firms ABS Capital Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, and was renamed after their signature product. Before the offering, ABS owned 46% of Rosetta and Norwest owned 30%. In January 2006, to get the company off the ground, ABS provided $29 million and Norwest invested $19 million. Those investments have paid
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