Halyard Capital Acquires Majority Interest in eLearners.com
Online Marketing Becomes Driving Force for Student Acquisition
(New York, N.Y.) June 23, 2005 -
Halyard Capital, a New York-based private equity fund and a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO), today announced that it has acquired a majority interest in eLearners.com, LLC. Current eLearners.com founder and president C.J. DeSantis and his management team will remain in place. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
eLearners.com® is an online marketing firm focused on the post-secondary and continuing education markets with a specific expertise in online education. The eLearners.com portal provides resources to prospective students and connects them with online education providers. The portal also offers a variety of services for students and institutions, such as the eLearners IndexSM, eLearners NewsSM and eLearners AdvisorTM, a unique self-assessment tool that eLearners has developed for prospective students.
"We view eLearners as the clear leader in providing student leads to post-secondary education institutions as well as providing important content to prospective students,"said Bruce Eatroff, a Halyard Capital partner and Head of the Media, Communications & Technology Group at Harris Nesbitt, the U.S. investment banking arm of BMO Financial Group. "We look forward to supporting the company’s continued growth initiatives in this very exciting market."
eLearners.com features over 100 educational partners, including University of Phoenix Online, Walden University and Tulane University. eLearners.com provides information on more than 1,200 degrees and certificates and over 6,200 courses.
C.J. DeSantis, Founder and President of eLearners.com, said, “Since its inception six years ago, eLearners has been a pioneer in connecting learners to education. We are excited about partnering with Halyard Capital and believe, collectively, we have an opportunity to grow eLearners to serve the diverse needs of the education market.”
About Halyard Capital
Halyard Capital, a member of BMO Financial Group, currently manages a $450 million private equity fund. Halyard Capital invests in growth financings and management buyout opportunities within the media, communications and business services industries.
About eLearners.com Inc.
Since 1999, eLearners.com® has been successfully connecting learners to education, including degree and certificate programs, specialized training, and a variety of courses. For prospective students, eLearners® provides a powerful search engine of online offerings as well as extensive educational resources, available at no cost. eLearners.com lists over 1,000 distance and online degree and certificate programs and more than 6,000 courses in over 150 subject areas, as well as a directory of over 5,900 post-secondary campus-based institutions. This year, eLearners will connect more than 3 million prospective students to appropriate educational programs. For colleges and universities, eLearners® performance-based marketing services offer a low-cost, high quality method to increase enrollment and exposure to their learning programs. For more information on eLearners.com Inc., visit www.elearners.com.
More information about eLearners
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