Rosetta Stone Essay

900 Words4 Pages
“Rosetta Stone” In 1980 Allen Stoltzfus set out to learn Russian, Stoltzfus realized that in order for him to learn the language he needed a more proactive method than just classroom studying, which made him turn to computer technology and contextualized inputs. In 1992 Allen founded “Fairfield Language Technologies” together with his brother Eugene Stoltzfus and Brother-in-law John Fairfield. They brought their ideas together to form a program which they named “Rosetta Stone”. After Allen’s death in 2002 and recent changes in management and evolution of the company through various years, Rosetta Stone began public trading on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2009; its shares were priced at $18 above the estimated $15-$17 range, jumping 42% to $25.52 in late morning trading. The company sold 6.25 million shares for a total of $112.5 million. Their total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2009 reflecting $252.3 million; this represents a 58% compound annual growth rate since 2004. Revenue from 2009 reflected an increase of 42.9% million or 21% from 2008, the increase included a $2.6 million initial stocking order from Barnes and Noble to support the expansion of Rosetta Stone products to over 650 of its national stores; as well as, assets acquired from a software reseller in Seoul, South Korea - SGLC International Co. Ltd. Rosetta Stones mission is to change the way people learn languages. The company blended language learning with technology when globalization started to connect more individuals and institutions to each other. It developed, marketed, and sold a self-study software, online services, and audio practice tools to individuals, educational institutions, the armed forces, and corporations around the world. The company’s teaching method can be referred to as Dynamic Immersion; its approach to teach sought to replicate the innate, natural

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