Tuesday, June 4, 2002

CollegisEduprise Seeks to Raise $75-Million in Stock Offering By FLORENCE OLSEN CollegisEduprise, formerly known as Collegis, has announced that it will try to raise $75-million through an initial public offering of stock. In doing so, it is defying a climate in which IPO's have all but dried up. The company focuses on strategic consulting, technology management, and instructional-delivery services for higher education. CollegisEduprise's contracts are mainly with mid-sized, metropolitan colleges and universities, many of them community colleges. A preliminary prospectus filed on May 31 with the Securities and Exchange Commission did not disclose the share price, the number of shares, or the portion of the company that CollegisEduprise would try to sell. One education analyst says the filing is good news. "It shows that the education market is still very strong," says Sean Robert Gallagher, an analyst with Eduventures, a consulting group specializing in education-related businesses. "Schools are still buying because they're in need of these kinds of services," Mr. Gallagher says. Whether that spending can be sustained in 2003 "is a little more questionable," he says. For 2001, CollegisEduprise reported a net income of more than $4-million on revenues of $70.3-million. During the first quarter of this year, which ended in March, its reported net income was $1.2-million, down slightly from $1.3-million in the same period a year ago. The company employs 780 people. In the prospectus filed with the SEC, CollegisEduprise states that its primary competitive challenge "is overcoming the initial resistance to our services from the internal information-technology departments of our prospective clients." Background article from The Chronicle: Collegis and Its Spinoff, Eduprise, Announce a Plan to Merge (8/21/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

California may require universities to quit considering GPA's weighted for AP courses Nontraditional students dominate undergraduate enrollments, U.S. study finds Philadelphia City Council passes bill holding some universities accountable for off-campus students St. Mary's College, in Indiana, found to have violated crime-reporting law CollegisEduprise seeks to raise $75-million in stock offering Technology gap among colleges perpetuates "digital divide" in society, expert warns A digest of recent corporate news in distance education