Deals
Viacom's Nickelodeon Acquires Sparkler in Pivot Toward Education
- Learning app will be folded into its successful Noggin service
- Sparkler co-founder Kristen Kane will oversee merged business
Photographer: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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Nickelodeon wants to turn kids’ living rooms into classrooms.
The Viacom Inc.-owned kids’ network has acquired the learning app Sparkler and plans to fold it into Noggin, a video service for preschoolers. Kristen Kane, the co-founder of Sparkler, will now oversee Noggin, which combines a catalog of more than 1,500 episodes of shows like “Paw Patrol” and “Peppa Pig” with play-as-you-go learning challenges involving popular Nick characters.