User:WWB Too/EDMC (Growth and acquisitions)

Foundation and early history
EDMC was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1962 and acquired its first educational institution in 1969, when it purchased the nearly 50-year-old Art Institute of Pittsburgh. By 1996 EDMC had grown to 14 schools. In October of the same year the company held an initial public offering, which brought in $45 million dollars. By 1998, EDMC served 17,400 students at 15 Art Institutes and three additional schools.

Expansion in the 2000s
In July 2001, EDMC reached an agreement to purchase Chicago-based Argosy Education Group, the operator of Argosy University campuses, for $78 million.. The acquisition allowed EDMC to offer programs in law, education and business.

In 2003, the company again expanded, with the acquisition of the health sciences-focused South University in April and 18 schools operated by the Ohio-based American Education Centers in June, which were rebranded a year later as Brown Mackie College. In September 2003, former Maine governor John R. McKernan, Jr. became EDMC's chief executive officer. He oversaw continued acquisitions of existing art and design schools in the U.S. and Canada, construction of new Art Institute locations and the establishment of online education programs.

Goldman Sachs, Providence Equity Partners and Leeds Equity Partners acquired EDMC and its 70 schools for $3.4 billion in March 2006, taking it private once again. At the time of the acquisition EDMC's schools were serving around 72,000 students, 4,000 of whom were enrolled in online programs. The additional capital was used grow online enrollment to more than 40,000 students by the end of the decade, made possible in part by a 2006 Congressional revision to the "50 percent" rule, which formerly required accredited schools to enroll more than 50 percent of their students in campus-based programs in order to maintain federal loan eligibility. In January 2007, Todd Nelson became the company's chief executive officer and oversaw EDMC's second public offering in 2009, which brought in more than $330 million dollars when the company's stock was released for sale on the NASDAQ. Following the public offering, Goldman Sachs retained a 40 percent ownership of the company.

Recent history
In 2012, Edward West replaced Todd Nelson as chief executive officer, while Nelson replaced McKernan as the company's chairman. After the growth in student numbers in the late 2000s, EDMC’s enrollment declined from around 160,000 students in 2011 to approximately 130,000 students at the end of 2012. EDMC has attributed this to the economic downturn of the late 2000s and new federal restrictions on the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students program.

The decrease in enrollment, coupled with pending changes to the U.S. Department of Education's "gainful employment" rule, prompted EDMC to hold off on planned expansions in 2012, and also led to several rounds of layoffs. The company has announced plans to open only one new school in the 2013 fiscal year. In February 2013, EDMC announced a tuition freeze through at least 2015, as part of a strategy to refocus on students.