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Kaplan Australia history
Kaplan Australia company history timeline
Kaplan, born in 1919 to Jewish immigrant parents, got his first experience as a tutor while in elementary school, where he paid friends a nickel apiece to let him help them with their math.
Kaplan, born in 1919 to Eastern European immigrant parents, got his first experience as a tutor while in elementary school, where he paid friends a nickel apiece to let him help them with their math.
Kaplan traces its roots to a Brooklyn, New York, basement in 1938, where company founder Stanley Kaplan first began tutoring students for a living.
1938: Stanley Kaplan starts a tutoring service in his Brooklyn, New York basement.
In 1946 he began to offer a 16-session preparatory class, charging $135.
1946: A 16-session SAT preparatory course is introduced.
1970: Kaplan opens first branch outside of New York, in Philadelphia; more follow.
1979: FTC investigation proves effectiveness of Kaplan's SAT preparation courses.
Instead, he handed the company over to Jonathan N. Grayer, a charismatic Harvard Business School graduate who had been marketing director at Kaplan since 1991.
1993: Printed test preparation study guides are introduced.
1994: Jonathan Grayer is appointed CEO.
Three chief executives came and went, and its performance became so lackluster — it lost $4 million in 1994 — that Don Graham considered killing it, he later said.
Sherman, Ted, "College Testing Service Sues Exam Prep Firm in Rift over Computer Quiz," Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, January 1, 1995.
The year 1995 also saw the launch of Kaplan’s first web site, www.kaplan.com.
In the fall of 1995 Kaplan also acquired Crimson & Brown Associates, a career counseling firm that helped companies find minority recruits and published Career Access magazine and the Minority Resume Book.
In early 1995 Kaplan was again the focus of controversy when the ETS accused the firm of sending trained test-takers to the new computerized version of the GRE for purposes of helping its students cheat.
In the spring of 1995 the company introduced a student loan information program, which was offered in conjunction with UBL Educational Loan Center.
Launching Kaplan Books Imprint and Moving into K-12 Education: 1996–97
Around Christmas in 1997, a Kaplan executive based in Los Angeles, Jack Goetz, proposed an idea that would send The Post Co. in a new direction: Kaplan should offer law degrees online.
In 1997, Grayer and other Kaplan executives negotiated a pay package so large that it significantly reduced the bottom line in some years.
“CB & Test Prep Companies at Odds Over Legitimacy of SAT Study,” Electronic Education Report, December 23, 1998.
In 1998, Concord Law School opened its virtual doors to 33 students.
Dockser Marcus, Amy, “SAT Coaches to Offer Counseling Services to College-Bound Students,” Dow Jones Business News, June 28, 1999.
1999: Concord University of Law is formed to offer classes online.
“Kaplan Aggressively Courts Internet Alliances, Launches Sites,” Educational Marketer, April 10, 2000.
By 2000, the class had grown to about 600.
In March 2001, Kaplan’s Canadian division acquired The Study Seminar for Financial Analysts of Windsor, Ontario, which offered test preparation for the CFA exam.
In 2001, its newspaper revenue declined year over year for the first time in at least a decade as advertising began to migrate to new, online competitors.
In early 2002 the company bought online test-prep services firm Achieva as well as vocational education providers Texas Careers, Thomson Institute, and Technology Education College.
For instance, in 2002 the company recorded an expense of $34.5 million associated with the Kaplan compensation plan, an amount equal to the entire higher-education division’s profit that year.
With Kaplan's revenues continuing to grow the Washington Post Co. began referring to itself as "a media and education company," and during 2003 revenues of the subsidiary eclipsed those of the newspaper.
During 2003 Kaplan also offered $138 million to buy 55 percent of the stock options owned by management personnel, which had been hurting its bottom line.
In 2003 Kaplan bought information technology practice test maker Transcender LLC, Ireland-based Dublin Business School, and The Financial Training Company.
The company's British presence was expanded in 2004 when it formed a partnership with Nottingham Trent University to create Nottingham Trent International College.
In a five-month period in 2004, it bought a Texas business school, an Indiana college and an Ohio technical institute.
He co-authored a paper in 2004 asserting that student-loan companies exploited loopholes to tap more federal funds.
In 2005 a substantially revised SAT was introduced, and the firm reworked its preparation programs to address the changes.
For 2006 the firm's revenues leapt to more than $1.6 billion, or about 43 percent of its parent company's total.
In 2006 the company bought U.K.-based Aspect Education, which operated 19 schools and provided English-language education programs to students in 100 countries, and Tribeca Learning of Australia, a financial and real estate education firm.
In the company’s 2006 annual report, he wrote that challenges Kaplan was facing even then “were the complex result of too-rapid acquisitions outgrowing our management structure.”
In April 2007 a joint venture called Kaplan ACE was formed with ACE Education of China, which helped students prepare for admission to United States universities and also offered college and professional training programs throughout China.
In July 2008, Grayer gave a video interview to the Financial Times in which he was asked to use the financial lingo “long” or “short” to indicate optimism or pessimism about a list of things, including English as a global language and the Beijing Olympics.
The day Shireman was appointed in 2009, a stock index tracking education companies dropped 6.9 percent. (When he left his post last May, the index rose 7.4 percent.)
By 2010, Kaplan executives had cashed in $291 million of stock options.
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