Learning Tree up for sale

29 May 2008

Learning Tree International, Inc.announced on 28 May that a special committee of its independent directors has decided to solicit offers to purchase the company. The reason seems to be that the company's founders chairman Eric Garens and vice chairman David Collins are looking for "diversification and liquidity to accommodate their charitable interests".

Learning Tree, founded in 1974, is a leading provider of vendor-independent education and training to IT professionals and managers in business and government organisations. The company develops, markets and delivers a broad, proprietary library of instructor-led courses focused on Web development, operating systems, programming languages, databases, computer networks, computer and network security, object-oriented technology, project management, leadership, communications, business analysis, and strategic business skills.

The company also tests and certifies IT and business professionals, and its courses are recommended for college credit by the American Council on Education. Learning Tree is also on the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy National Registry of CPE sponsors and is a registered education provider of the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Says Learning Tree president and CEO Nicholas R. Schacht, "For over 33 years, Learning Tree has taken the lead in providing the highest quality, vendor-independent education and training for managers and IT professionals worldwide. In the past year we achieved significant improvements in profitability and revenue, further enhancing our already strong financial position. We believe this is an appropriate time to solicit offers to determine if a sale is the best way to maximise shareholder value. A sale would also address the desires of our two founders, who remain our principal shareholders, for diversification and liquidity to accommodate their charitable interests."

The fact is that the company's market performance has not been as good as peers or the market average. As the graph below shows, return from investment in Learning Tree in the five years to September 2007 was lower than that for the peer group average or on the NASDAQ composite.