Wednesday, October 2, 2002

SCT Buys Campus Pipeline for $42-Million By DAN CARNEVALE The SCT Corporation agreed on Tuesday to spend $42-million to buy all the outstanding stock in Campus Pipeline Inc., which provides Web-portal services to more than 200 colleges. Campus Pipeline's customers will continue to receive the same services, and future technology services will include SCT software, company officials said. Officials said the acquisition will help SCT provide a technology infrastructure for colleges and universities that support a variety of online services. The company, which is formally known as Systems & Computer Technology Corporation, serves more than 1,300 higher-education clients worldwide. SCT had already acquired 57 percent of the common stock of Campus Pipeline, beginning with a $7.5-million seed investment in 1998. But SCT's voting interest was 42 percent because of outstanding voting shares of the company. Under the new deal, SCT will own all the company's stock. Negotiations for the all-cash acquisition started in January, and the final deal was signed at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. This is the third acquisition this year by SCT, which develops administrative-information systems for colleges. The company has also sold off two business units and is in the process of divesting a third as it concentrates its business on higher-education technology. Darin Gilson, president and chief operating officer of Campus Pipeline, said the deal will create a "chocolate-and-peanut-butter environment" for campus technology, bringing different Web technologies and software together to provide a broad backbone for colleges and their computer services. "It's everything from teaching, learning, administration, and community services on a campus," Mr. Gilson says. "So what we hope to provide is technology that supports each of those environments." Bob Moul, president of SCT Global Education Solutions, which is the education portion of SCT, says the acquisition will allow the company to develop technology that will allow students, faculty members, and administrators to gain access to most campus services online. "Students today are very used to a point-and-click online experience," Mr. Moul said. "They're used to being able to get plane schedules online and downloading them to their hand-held computers. They want to be able to do the same thing with their class schedules." Although he didn't provide any details, Mr. Moul said SCT may continue buying out other companies to further its market reach. "I certainly wouldn't rule out further acquisitions in the future," he said. Sean R. Gallagher, an analyst at Eduventures, says colleges probably won't see any dramatic differences in the services provided by SCT. But the acquisition will help the company integrate many services with Campus Pipeline. Mr. Gallagher said he will be interested to see whether services that were provided by Campus Pipeline continue to be compatible with some of SCT's competitors, like PeopleSoft. Background article from The Chronicle: SCT to Buy Sallie Mae's Software Arm (2/1/2002) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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