By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive
A group of investors has agreed to purchase Apollo Education Group, owner of the for-profit college chain University of Phoenix, in a $1.1 billion cash deal. The New York Times reports that the buyers include Chicago-based investment firm Vistria Group, whose founder, Marty Nesbitt, has close ties to President Barack Obama and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and whose COO, Tony Miller, served as deputy secretary of the Obama Department of Education from 2009 to 2013. While the investors hope to help clean up the for-profit industry with the purchase and plan to run the University of Phoenix with “the highest ethical standards,” critics of the sector and the purchase say the new team will have trouble doing so, given their obligations to shareholders — especially as they bought out Apollo Education Group shares for about 30% more than its stock was worth on the market.
http://www.educationdive.com/news/apollo-education-group-to-go-private-in-11b-sale/413574/
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