Exhibit 99.1
[***] Confidential portions of this document
have been redacted and filed separately with the
Commission.
Master Services and License
Agreement
between Bridgepoint Education and
eCollege.com
Bridgepoint Education, Inc., a
Delaware corporation (“ Customer ”) and
eCollege.com, a Delaware corporation (“ eCollege
”) hereby enter into this Master Services and License
Agreement (this “ Agreement ”) effective as of
the 29th day of September, 2009 (the “ Effective Date
”).
1)
Products and
Services
Subject to the terms and conditions
set forth in this Agreement, eCollege agrees to provide the
products and perform the services selected by Customer (“
Products and Services ”), as set forth
in the exhibits hereto and any subsequent addenda or amendments to
this Agreement. Customer is not authorized to access or use
any other eCollege products or services, unless expressly set forth
in this Agreement.
2)
Statement of Work
Additional services may be purchased
pursuant to a Statement of Work, which shall be governed by the
terms and conditions of this Agreement. “ Statement
of Work ” means the standard eCollege statement of work
form, as such form may be revised by the parties, that is signed by
both parties and sets forth the services, deliverables and pricing
for the services ordered by Customer.
3)
Customer
Information
Customer Ownership
. Customer and its authorized users
may provide eCollege, either directly or indirectly (through
placement of such information, materials and data on the eCollege
System by Customer’s authorized users) with information,
materials and data (the “ Customer Information
”). As between eCollege and Customer, all such Customer
Information is the exclusive and proprietary property of
Customer. eCollege shall under no circumstances sell, lease,
assign, sublicense or disclose the Customer Information except as
provided herein.
Grant of License
. Customer grants to eCollege
a non-transferable, non-exclusive and non-sublicenseable license
during the term of this Agreement to copy, transmit, use and
prepare derivative works of the Customer Information to the extent
necessary for eCollege to perform its obligations under this
Agreement. This license cannot be sublicensed by eCollege nor
shall it be construed to permit eCollege to use Customer
Information for any other purpose, except as expressly permitted by
this Agreement.
4)
The eCollege
System
eCollege System
. The “ eCollege
System ” shall mean the computer system (including
software,
hardware, interfaces and other
components) operated by eCollege and used to provide the Products
and Services to Customer. As part of its ongoing development
efforts, eCollege may, from time to time, make upgrades or
enhancements to the eCollege System. In most instances, such
upgrades and enhancements are made available free of charge to
eCollege customers. However, if eCollege requires payment of
additional fees in order to use certain upgrades and enhancements,
such use shall be at Customer’s sole discretion.
Customer hereby acknowledges that eCollege has made no commitments
as to the exact functionality or timing of upgrades and
enhancements to the eCollege System.
License Terms
. eCollege hereby grants
Customer a non-transferable, non-exclusive and
non-sublicenseable (except as to Customer’s Affiliates)
license to access and use the applicable portions of the eCollege
System, and all work product created by eCollege pursuant to any
Statement of Work, during the term of this Agreement for the sole
purpose of Customer and its authorized users receiving the Products
and Services for educational, instructional and related
administrative purposes. All such access and use shall be
subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. All
rights not specifically granted herein are reserved by
eCollege.
Authorized Users.
Customer’s faculty,
staff and students enrolled in Customer’s Affiliates (defined
below) (“ Authorized Users ”) are hereby deemed
to be authorized users of the eCollege System. In all
instances, Customer shall be responsible for the actions and
inactions of its faculty and staff Authorized Users with regard to
their access and use of the eCollege System and the Products and
Services. Customer shall use reasonable efforts to inform and
educate student Authorized Users regarding limitations on the use
of the Products and Services; however, Customer shall not liable
for any violations by student Authorized Users and any such
violations do not constitute material breaches of the Agreement.
Student Authorized Users shall remain responsible for any
infringing or prohibited use of the Products and Services by such
student Authorized Users.
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Agreement
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[***] Confidential portions of this document
have been redacted and filed separately with the
Commission.
Affiliates
. Subject to the terms and
conditions of this Agreement, eCollege hereby extends the licenses
granted under this Agreement to Customer’s Affiliates.
Customer hereby represents and warrants that it has the authority
to require Affiliates to comply with the terms and conditions of
this Agreement. Customer and eCollege agree that:
(a) the faculty, staff and enrolled students of
Customer’s Affiliates shall be deemed to be Authorized Users
of Customer; (b) Customer will ensure that the faculty and
staff of each such Affiliate will comply with the terms and
conditions of this Agreement and Customer shall use reasonable
efforts to inform and educate student Authorized Users enrolled
with Customer’s Affiliates regarding limitations on the use
of the Products and Services; however, Customer shall not liable
for any violations by student Authorized Users and any such
violations do not constitute material breaches of the Agreement.
Student Authorized Users shall remain responsible for any
infringing or prohibited use of the Products and Services by such
student Authorized Users; (c) Customer will remain solely
responsible to eCollege for the performance of all obligations owed
to eCollege under this Agreement (including payment of fees for the
use of the eCollege system and the Products and Services, as set
forth in Exhibit 2 and any subsequent addenda or Statements of
Work to this Agreement), whether such obligations are applicable to
Customer or such Affiliates; and (d) subject to subparagraph
(b) above, each act, omission and/or breach by an Affiliate
will be deemed to be an act, omission and/or breach by
Customer. Subject to subparagraph (b) above, Customer
shall be responsible for the actions and inactions of its
Authorized Users with respect to the subject matter of this
Agreement. “ Affiliate ” shall mean for purposes
of this Agreement any legal entity Controlled by or under common
Control with Customer and shall include without limitation Ashford
University, LLC, an Iowa limited liability company, University of
the Rockies, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company, and any
other institution which is either now or hereafter becomes
Controlled by or under Common Control with Customer. The
terms “ Control ” and “ Controlled
” as used in this Agreement shall mean the beneficial
ownership, direct or indirect, of more than fifty percent (50%) of
the aggregate of all equity interest in such entity.
Restrictions
. Except as expressly provided for
in this Agreement, under no circumstances may Customer, without
prior written permission from eCollege: (a) use the eCollege
System or eCollege Products or Services to provide products or
services to any school, college, university, or other third party
other than an Authorized User or an Affiliate of
Customer; (b) directly or
indirectly provide access to the eCollege System or provide
eCollege Products or Services, in whole or in part, to another
school, college, university or other third party,
(c) sublicense its rights with respect to this Agreement
without the written permission of eCollege, or (d) attempt, or
allow others, to modify, adapt, decompile, decrypt, disassemble,
extract or reverse engineer any part of the eCollege System.
Customer represents and warrants that it shall not, and it shall
advise its student Authorized Users that they shall not, use the
eCollege System to (a) engage in spamming or other
impermissible advertising, marketing or other activities,
including, without limitation, any activities that violate
anti-spamming laws or regulations; (b) transmit, display or
store infringing, obscene, threatening, indecent, libelous,
slanderous, defamatory or otherwise unlawful or tortious material,
including material that is harmful to children or violates third
party privacy rights; (c) introduce malicious programs (such
as viruses, worms or Trojan horses) into the eCollege System;
(d) interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of
the eCollege System, the eCollege services or the data contained or
used therein; (e) attempt to gain unauthorized access to the
eCollege System or its related systems or networks; or
(f) harass or interfere with another user’s use of the
eCollege System or the eCollege services. Customer and
eCollege will, at all times, comply with all applicable local,
state, federal, and foreign laws in using or providing, as
applicable, the eCollege System or the eCollege services.
With notice to Customer, eCollege reserves the right to suspend
access to and use of the eCollege System and the eCollege services
with respect to any individual user that eCollege reasonably
believes has undertaken, or participated in, any of the foregoing
activities.
Location of the eCollege
System .
Notwithstanding the foregoing, and except for the license granted
in this Section 4, Customer shall not have direct access to
the software or infrastructure used to provide the Products and
Services to Customer, at any time during or after the term of this
Agreement. Customer shall have no right to modify the
eCollege System.
Ownership . eCollege shall retain all right, title
and interest in all eCollege proprietary information and
property and the eCollege System, including all updates and
enhancements, reproductions and corrections thereof and all related
patent rights, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, service
marks, related goodwill and other intellectual property.
eCollege shall also retain all right, title and interest, including
all intellectual property rights therein, in and to any work
product or any other work of authorship or invention conceived
of,
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developed or created by eCollege
under the terms of this Agreement or any Statement of
Work.
5)
System
Availability
eCollege shall use commercially
reasonable efforts to maintain operation of the eCollege System on
a 24 hours per day, 365 days per year basis. In addition to
the foregoing, eCollege commits to the obligations set forth in the
Service Level Agreement detailed in Exhibit 4 to this
Agreement.
Critical One Fixes
. Reported problems of a
critical nature preventing Customer’s access to the eCollege
System shall be repaired within 24 hours, or if not within 24
hours, as soon as commercially reasonable. eCollege shall
commence repair work immediately upon receipt of notice, and shall
continue repair work until the problem is corrected.
Critical Two Fixes
. Reported problems of a
nature limiting Customer’s use of the Products or Services
shall be repaired within three (3) business days, or if not
within three (3) business days, as soon as commercially
reasonable. eCollege shall commence repair work as soon as
commercially reasonable, and shall continue repair work until the
problem is corrected.
Non-critical Fixes
. Reported fixes of
typographical errors and other non-critical, incorrect information
will be made within ten (10) business days, or if not within
ten (10) business days, as soon as commercially
reasonable.
eCollege is not responsible for
repair of or problems with (i) Customer-caused outages or
disruptions, (ii) problems due to the performance of networks
or systems controlled by companies or entities other than
eCollege except to the extent caused by eCollege, or
(iii) Third Party Services.
6)
Domain Name
eCollege, with the assistance of
Customer, will attempt to secure a domain name from Verisign or a
comparable domain-name distributor, with eCollege as the billing,
administrative, technical and zone contacts. Any rights
granted eCollege for such domain name shall be assigned in full to
Customer, upon request of Customer. All fees to purchase and
maintain a domain name shall be paid by Customer.
7)
Marketing and
Promotion
Customer will permit eCollege, at
eCollege’s sole expense, to: (i) place eCollege’s
logo, copyright notice and terms of use on Customer’s Gateway
(as defined in Exhibit 1), and (ii) list Customer as a
customer of eCollege.
8)
Travel Expenses
All fees incurred by Customer are
exclusive of eCollege’s travel-related expenses.
Customer agrees to reimburse eCollege for all pre-approved travel
and out-of-pocket expenses incurred by eCollege with respect to any
on-site services.
9)
Term and
Termination
Initial Term
. The initial term of this
Agreement (“ Initial Term ”) shall
commence on the Effective Date and shall be for a five
(5) year period (each year being a “ Contract
Year ”). The term of the Agreement shall be renewed
automatically for successive periods of one (1) year each
(each a “ Renewal Term ” and a “
Contract Year ”) after the expiration of the Initial
Term and any subsequent Renewal Term, unless eCollege provides
Customer, or Customer provides eCollege, with a written notice to
the contrary at least six (6) months prior to the end of the
Initial Term or any Renewal Term. Except as expressly set
forth in this Agreement, this Agreement may not be terminated prior
to the end of the Initial Term or the then-current Renewal
Term.
Termination for Breach
. This Agreement may be
terminated by either party if the other is in material breach of
any provision of this Agreement, but only after written notice of
default and opportunity to cure has been given to the breaching
party. The notice of default must provide for an opportunity
to cure of at least fifteen (15) days following receipt of notice
of breach of any representation, warranty or covenant contained in
Sections 16 or 18, and at least thirty (30) days following receipt
of notice for breaches of other provisions of this Agreement.
If the party receiving the notice has not cured the breach before
the cure date stated in the notice then the party giving notice may
terminate this Agreement by giving the breaching party written
notice of termination, which will be effective upon
delivery. If Customer terminates this Agreement due to
a material breach by eCollege, Customer shall be released from all
additional fees, other than those incurred by Customer prior to the
date the termination is effective, and shall be refunded on a pro
rata basis for fees previously paid and still unused as of the date
the termination is effective.
Termination in Accordance with
the Service Level Agreement . Exhibit 4 to this Agreement sets
forth the terms and conditions under which Customer may terminate
this Agreement for eCollege’s failure to maintain its Service
Level Agreement commitments.
Effect of Termination or
Expiration . Upon
termination or expiration of this Agreement, all licenses granted
hereunder shall immediately
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Agreement
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[***] Confidential portions of this document
have been redacted and filed separately with the
Commission.
terminate. Notwithstanding the
termination of this Agreement for any reason, the rights and duties
of the parties under Sections 10-16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25 and all
provisions pertaining to ownership of intellectual property shall
survive such termination and remain in full force and
effect.
10)
Fees
Pricing for eCollege Products and
Services is set forth in the exhibits attached hereto.
Additional services provided by eCollege to Customer shall be
provided at eCollege’s then-current standard rates and prices
or as otherwise agreed by the parties. All prices are quoted
in U.S. dollars and all payments shall be made in U.S.
dollars. The fees hereunder do not include any applicable
sales, use, excise, VAT or other taxes or duties levied or based on
this Agreement or the Products or Services provided hereunder,
which shall be invoiced to Customer separately. In no event
will Customer be liable for income taxes or taxes based on
eCollege’s income.
11)
Invoices; Late Fees;
Interest
Customer shall pay all invoices
issued by eCollege for the Products and Services and other services
rendered within thirty (30) days of the date of the invoice.
Customer shall not make deductions of any kind from any payments
due eCollege. No payment by Customer to eCollege of any
lesser amount than that due to eCollege shall be deemed to be other
than a payment on account, and no endorsement or statement on any
check or in any letter accompanying any check or other payment
shall be deemed an accord and satisfaction. eCollege may
accept any payment without prejudice to eCollege’s right to
recover any remaining balance or to pursue any other remedy
provided in this Agreement, or by applicable law.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if
Customer has an objection to a charge or expense set forth in an
invoice, Customer shall send written notice of its objection to
eCollege, and the reasons therefor, within thirty (30) days of the
date of the invoice. Upon receipt of an objection, eCollege
shall undertake to provide Customer with back-up documentation to
support its charge for the services or expenses in dispute. If
Customer does not continue to object to the charge or expense after
reviewing the back-up documentation, Customer will forward payment
immediately to eCollege, but in no event later than ten
(10) days after receipt of the back-up documentation. If
Customer still objects to the charge or expense after receiving and
reviewing the back-up documentation, both Parties agree to the
dispute resolution process described in Paragraph 23, prior to
bringing any claim before any judicial or quasi-judicial entity.
Any disputed
amounts shall not affect payment of
non-disputed charges and expenses.
In the event that any invoice (which
is not the subject of an objection by Customer as set forth above)
is not paid in full within thirty (30) days of the invoice date,
Customer shall pay simple interest at the rate of 12% per annum (or
the maximum legal rate, whichever is lower) beginning sixty (60)
days after the date of the invoice. If Customer fails to pay
an invoice within ninety (90) days after the date of the invoice,
eCollege may, after providing fifteen (15) days written notice to
Customer, suspend the provision of Products and Services, including
turning off Customer’s access to the eCollege System.
Unless changed by written notice to eCollege, invoices and notice
regarding invoices to Customer shall be delivered or mailed
to:
Bridgepoint Education
13500 Evening Creek Dr North
Suite 600
San Diego, CA 92128
Attn: Dan Devine, CFO
Tel: 858.668.2586
12)
eCollege Warranties and
Representations
To the actual knowledge of eCollege
as of the Effective Date, eCollege warrants that the use of its
Products and Services does not infringe the U.S. copyright, patent,
or trademark of a third party or constitute a misappropriation of
trade secrets of a third party. Indemnification for a breach
of this

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