Halyard Capital Acquires Majority Interest In Educational
Directories Unlimited
Halyard Capital, a New
York-based private equity fund, announced today that it has
acquired a majority interest in Educational Directories
Unlimited, Inc. (.EDU.) and committed a significant
investment to accelerate the Company's current growth and
market leading position. EDU President and CEO Mark Shay
will continue in his position and maintain a stake in the
business. Co-founder Mark Landon and senior executive Sam
Guittare will assume consulting and advisory roles.
(PRWEB) May 23, 2006 -- Halyard Capital, a
New York-based private equity fund, announced today that
it has acquired a majority interest in Educational
Directories Unlimited, Inc. (.EDU.) and committed a
significant investment to accelerate the Company's
current growth and market leading position. EDU
President and CEO Mark Shay will continue in his
position and maintain a stake in the business.
Co-founder Mark Landon and senior executive Sam Guittare
will assume consulting and advisory roles.
The balance of the EDU team will remain in place and
continue to work in EDU's headquarters in Chester,
Pennsylvania. EDU has been at the forefront of
educational marketing since its inception in 1995. With
a mission to be the bridge between students and
education, EDU provides online directories such as
StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com, IIEPassport.org and
UCEAdirectory.org, as well as Student Prospector.com, a
service allowing academic recruiters to search
proactively for students from a database of student
profiles.
As part of the transaction, Halyard Capital has created
Halyard Education Partners, which combines its current
investment in eLearners.com (.eLearners.) with EDU.
Halyard Capital acquired a controlling stake in
eLearners in May 2005 and has been supporting an
aggressive expansion of the business. eLearners is an
online marketing firm focused on the postsecondary and
continuing education markets with a specific expertise
in online education. Founded in 1999 with a mission to
address the unique needs of distance learning students,
eLearners.com's content, tools and community enable
prospective students to evaluate and compare distance
learning opportunities.
“We view Educational Directories Unlimited as a clear
leader in higher education marketing. In particular,
they have built significant credibility in the
non-profit education arena for their integrity and
quality,” said Bruce Eatroff, Managing Partner of
Halyard Capital. “We look forward to working with Mark
Shay and his colleagues in building the dominant
provider of interactive marketing solutions to the
education industry. Both EDU and eLearners share a
vision to provide the educational marketplace with the
preeminent source of high quality, comprehensive
information and content designed to recruit students.”
Mark Shay, Founder and CEO of EDU said, ”We are proud of
the growth and innovation we have brought to the higher
education market for the past eleven years. We are
excited about partnering with Halyard Capital and
believe their support will strengthen EDU to better
serve the needs of our 2,500 academic clients.” Halyard
expects to direct new investment toward enhancing the
Company's IT infrastructure, upgrading the capabilities
of EDU's market-leading Web sites and growing the EDU
employee base. Steve Isaac, current Chairman of
eLearners and newly appointed CEO of Halyard Education
Partners added, “EDU has established leadership in a
number of important education verticals such as graduate
programs and study abroad. We believe leveraging the
best practices of both EDU and eLearners will allow us
to better serve the increasingly complex marketing needs
of the education industry. Halyard Education Partners'
strategy will be to continue to support the growth of
both businesses while we work to develop a more
comprehensive suite of products and services to serve
our education clients.”
About Halyard Capital
Halyard Capital is a New York-based private equity fund
with $350 million of capital under management focused on
investing in media, communications and business services
companies. The Fund specializes in middle-market
leveraged buyouts, growth equity and structured equity
investments. Halyard invests in and works closely with
exceptional management teams in companies with
defensible market positions and franchise
characteristics which generate strong cash flow and
operate in attractive growth markets. The Fund will
commit up to $30 million to individual portfolio
companies with a focus on investments of between $15
million and $30 million. Halyard has the ability to
complete larger transactions utilizing its network of
investment partners. Additional information regarding
Halyard's strategy, principals and investments can be
found at
www.halyard.com.
About Educational Directories Unlimited
Educational Directories Unlimited (.EDU.) is a leading
provider of online directories serving the higher
education industry. The business is headquartered in
Chester, PA. The Company's industry leading Web sites
include
www.GradSchools.com,
www.StudyAbroad.com and
www.IIEPassport.org. EDU is the bridge between
students and educators, producing valuable services for
educational administrators, advisors, and students.
Educational administrators use EDU Web sites and
recruiting tools to effectively target their market:
from college students looking to study abroad and attend
full-time graduate school through working professionals
looking to return to school. In addition, EDU Web sites
serve as useful tools for students and advisors. Each
Web site uniquely focuses on a specific area of
education, providing a comprehensive directory of
programs and information, to help students make informed
educational choices. Collectively, EDU sites list nearly
100,000 academic programs. Additional information about
EDU can be found at
www.EDUdirectories.com.
About eLearners.com®
The eLearners.com website is one of several high visibility, high-quality prospecting tools offered by EducationDynamics, LLC. Since 1999, eLearners.com has been successfully connecting learners to online education, including online degree and certificate programs, specialized career training, and a variety of online courses. For prospective students, eLearners® provides a powerful search engine for users to find thousands of online program offerings, as well as educational evaluation tools and financial aid resources. For colleges and universities, the eLearners.com website offers a low-cost, performance-based method to provide national exposure and increase enrollments in their programs. For more information on eLearners.com, visit www.elearners.com.
# # # |
Press Release
