Two big pieces of news hit the education market recently, both in the for-profit college sector.
On July 29, Strategic Education Inc (NASDAQ: STRA) bought schools and education programs operating in Australia and New Zealand from Laureate Education Inc (NASDAQ: LAUR) for $643 million in cash. The deal will bring a number of brands and an estimated 19,000 students into the Strategic bundle, which already include the for-profit, nearly entirely online colleges Strayer and Capella. With the acquisition, Strategic will have nearly 110,000 students paying, or getting grants and taking loans, to study with them.
On Aug. 3, Zovio Inc (NASDAQ: ZVO), formerly Bridgepoint Education, announced that one of its signature education properties, the online, for-profit Ashford University, would be “acquired” by the University of Arizona and become “The University of Arizona Global Campus.” The acquisition price was $1.
At one time, Ashford was among the largest online, for-profits. But like many schools in the sector, its enrollment has declined by about half to a, still significant, 34,000 students. In 2019 and 2020 Zovio began reducing staff and reported a net operating loss of more than $56 million for 2019.