Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/consolidation-at-the-top...at-last/5016119/
For the past two decades, industry watchers have been predicting pending consolidation. Apart from a few mergers here and there, the consolidation hasn’t happened until now.Suddenly, in the past two years, the sixth largest for profit child care organization as of January 2003 (Knowledge Learning Corporation) has acquired the largest (KinderCare Learning Centers) and the third largest (Children’s World Learning Centers) organizations.
The result of these mergers is that Knowledge Learning Corporation (KLC) is now the largest for profit child care organization in the world, operating 1,980 centers, 461 before and after school programs, and 134 employer-sponsored child care centers. KLC serves more than 200,000 children and employs nearly 45,000 early childhood professionals.
To learn more about the plans of KLC, Exchange recently interviewed the CEO Thomas Heymann. Here is what he had to say:
Exchange: Was your recent acquisition of KinderCare Learning Centers part of a long range strategy or the result of an opportunity you couldn’t pass up?
Heymann: Our intentions had been to focus our energies on integrating the services of Knowledge Learning Corporation and the Children’s World centers we had recently acquired. We were just in the beginning phases of this effort when the folks at Kohlberg Kravis ...