Knowledge Universe Info, for those who missed it .... this is exciting stuff ... I'd love to see APPL have part in this!
BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE NEWS FLASH
September 24, 1997
Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
MILKEN AND MALONE: SELLING SCHOOLING TO AMERICA
Two of the biggest dealmakers in America -- former junk-bond king Michael Milken and cable maven John Malone -- are joining hands to turn education into a business. Milken's privately financed Knowledge Universe and Malone's cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. have reached a tentative agreement on a joint venture to bring education into homes, schools, and businesses via the Internet and cable TV.
Details have yet to be announced. But the basic outlines call for TCI education unit ETC to provide for schools an online service called Ingenius, as well as cable wiring to the classroom. Knowledge Universe would fund the venture and take a majority stake along with running it. Terms for the cash infusion are unclear at the moment, TCI execs say, and still must be negotiated.
The education field has a huge potential payoff. Milken's Knowledge Universe operation has been aggressively making acquisitions in worker training, temp-help, and information-technology consulting. It has also been looking at software and other products, including virtual universities, to make education more exciting and effective for kids.
Knowledge Universe has more than $600 million in revenues. In the last 13 months, it bought a 50.1% stake in CRT, a British broad-based training and consulting company; most of the franchisees of Florida's Productivity Point International, which offers software training courses; and Boston's Symmetrix, a info-tech consulting outfit.
TCI has aggressively sought to provide cable-TV hookups to schools in hopes of linking them together for so-called long-distance learning. TCI also operates Sparkman Center near Denver, which trains school teachers to use cable TV and online services to educate their students.
By Kathleen Morris and Ronald Grover in Los Angeles
News Flash Archives
Copyright 1997, by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. |
