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Steamboat Springs — A Baltimore-based company has bought K to the 8th Power, a Steamboat Springs location-neutral business.

Ken Reed started K to the 8th with his sister Donna Caldwell six years ago. The business sells online curriculum to public and private schools in 45 states and 250 school districts, Reed said. Connections Academy bought K to the 8th on May 6.

Reed and his sister started the company soon after Reed moved to Steamboat from Denver. He's been in computer science and engineering for years, previously running a publishing company called WestNet Learning. He and Caldwell saw a need for curriculum to help students gain the computer literacy required by the U.S. government.

K to the 8th's products guide teachers through Web-based learning.

"The kids aren't wasting time when they're going to the lab," Reed said. "They're doing something that helps academically, but it helps them become computer literate, too."

Reed now runs the company with two managing partners, George Bennett, of Aspen, and Robert Ott, of Atlanta. Reed is the only Steamboat employee, though he uses local contractors when needed.

K to the 8th Power markets its products via the Web, selling per-student subscriptions to schools. It produces curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade. Connections Academy has used K to the 8th for three years for virtual schools it runs in 15 states. Steven Guttentag, Connections senior vice president, said he was pleased with the products and excited about the partnership. K to the 8th will be a wholly owned subsidiary.

"We probably talked to them six months ago about ways we could bring these two companies together, leveraging our national footprint : and help them expand their footprint in terms of schools they're reaching," Guttentag said.

Connections Academy manages online schools for kindergarten through 12th grade and serves about 18,000 students. Connections was founded in 2001 and opened its first two schools in 2002. One was Denver Connections Academy, part of the public school system in Denver.

"We have a fondness for the state and are happy to be there in two places," Guttentag said.

Connections plans to help K to the 8th expand. That could mean more jobs, but those might not be in Steamboat.

"To our customers and new customers, it'll look the same," Reed said. "They're going to be really aggressive and put a lot of money into it. They want to grow it by a factor of 4 1/2 over a year and a half, and they have the resources to do it."

Connections Academy offered cash and stock for K to the 8th. Connections is private but plans to go public in a year and a half, Reed said. He wouldn't give figures but said the deal amounted to five times K to the 8th Power's annual revenue.

Reed, Bennett and Ott are contractually obligated to stay with the company for a year, Reed said. He isn't sure whether he'll stay on after that.

"I have no idea. I haven't really decided. I haven't worked for somebody for so long, I don't know if I can do it," he joked.

Guttentag said he was pleased with how the managers built Connections Academy's new acquisition.

"In addition to the technology, we're very excited," he said. "Ken Reed, George Bennett, Robert Ott - we've just been very impressed with what they've built in a very frugal way, a very smart way that really meets the needs of students out there that need to be technology literate."