Here is some more info on the Costello exit. All I could
find were press releases for Knowledge Universe. IMO, the
grudge match between CDN and AVNT is 90% personality.
Regardless of who did what to whom, with Costello out of
the picture, a business solution is now more possible.
BTW, what a great time for Joe to exit. He wants to get into
politics and going from CEO of the year to this high profile
Milken/Ellison deal could not be a better stepping stone.
Thanks, Kim.
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Monday October 20 5:24 PM EDT
Cadence CEO resigns to join Milken venture
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct 20 (Reuters) - Cadence Design Systems Inc said on Monday
its chief executive Joe Costello resigned from the computer chip engineering
firm to
join Knowledge Universe, an educational software company partly owned by former
junk-bond financier Michael Milken.
Costello, who has received much of the credit for growing Cadence into an
electronics-design software and consulting powerhouse, will be replaced by Jack
Harding,
the CEO of a company Cadence acquired earlier this year.
Costello said in a statement he is looking forward to the opportunity of
''making a significant contribution to education'' at Knowledge Universe. He
also gave up his
seat on the Cadence board of directors.
Knowledge Universe was set up a few years ago by Milken, Oracle Corp (ORCL)
chairman Larry Ellison and other investors to make educational toys, computers
and
software for schools and consumers.
Cadence, based in San Jose, Calif., makes computer programs that help electrical
engineers design computer chips.
More news for referenced ticker symbols: CDN, ORCL, and related categories and
industries: Software, EDA/CAD, stock capsules.
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Ellison, Milken put Sega's former CEO back in the game
Knowledge is paying off
Steve Ginsberg Business Times Staff Writer
Bankrolled by Larry Ellison and Michael Milken, deposed Sega of
America CEO Tom Kalinske is back in business in a big way.
In the year since his ouster at Sega, Kalinske's Knowledge Universe
has rapidly built a stable of mainly British-based computer education
and training firms with annual sales totaling $500 million.
The Burlingame-based Knowledge Universe has used acquisitions to take
ownership stakes in seven computer education and training
firms, all but one in the United Kingdom.
The largest is publicly-traded CRT, a consulting, recruiting and
training company. Knowledge Universe paid approximately $270 million
for a 52-percent controlling interest earlier this year, and has since
made five other deals in Britain. The lone American company in the
collection is Chicago-based Productivity Point International.
Knowledge Universe plans to make more acquisitions, said Kalinske,
adding that the company has identified 21 market segments it may
pursue. All have a computer training or education component.
"We're just getting going. We're not the normal startup, but a well
capitalized corporation," he said. "I have always been involved in
education, serving on various boards. After Sega, I wanted to form a
company that helped people improve their skills, but in a for-profit
venture."
Kalinske, who previously served as president of toymaker Mattel Inc.,
was the fall guy last summer for the shortcoming of Sega's Saturn
video game player, which lost out to rival Sony and its PlayStation
video game console. In July, Kalinske was succeeded as Sega's CEO
by Shoichiro Irimajiri.
Kalinske immediately formed a start-up that has since become Knowledge
Universe. Financing for the new venture came from disgraced
financier Michael Milken, who Kalinske knows as a 10-year director on
the Milken family board. Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison also
invested in Kalinske's startup.
Knowledge Universe has 15 employees and offices in Burlingame and Los
Angeles.
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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 |
