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| ST Unitas CEO Yoon Sung-hyuk, second from left, shakes hands with The Princeton Review CEO Kate Walker after signing a stock purchase agreement at the Conrad Hotel on Yeouido, Tuesday. ST Unitas has acquired one of the largest U.S. education service firms. / Courtesy of ST Unitas |
ST Unitas has acquired The Princeton Review, a major U.S. education service firm, as its first major step toward becoming a global powerhouse in the rapidly expanding online-based exam preparation market.
Korea's largest operator of private learning institutes, which offer English, Chinese and other foreign language courses as well as various civil-service tests, plans to make the best use of the Massachusetts-based company's extensive database and knowhow on the scholastic aptitude test (SAT) and other standardized U.S. exams. ST Unitas also offers a range of lectures online.
"We are happy to announce that ST Unitas and The Princeton Review have become one family," ST Unitas CEO Yoon Sung-hyuk told reporters, Tuesday. "We will together build a global education platform that offers innovative, information-technology-based, tailored services to our users across the globe."
Yoon declined to say how much his company paid to secure management control of the U.S. firm. According to investment bank analysts, however, ST Unitas reportedly paid about 100 billion won ($87 million).
Founded in April 2010, ST Unitas has become the nation's largest education firm, generating 400 billion won in sales last year and employing more than 1,200. Its private learning institutes offers courses on TOEIC and other language proficiency tests as well as on civil administrative exams, both offline and online.
The Princeton Review, founded in 1981, is a college admission services company offering test preparation services, tutoring and admissions resources, online courses and books. Besides the United States, it has set up a presence in 20 countries.
"We believe that now is the right time for us to enter the United States, the world's largest education market. The U.S. online education industry has been expanding rapidly over the past five years," Yoon said. "Given that the majority of IT platforms that dominate the global market, such as Facebook and Uber, were born in the United States, we decided to create our platform in the world's largest economy. This is another reason why we decided to acquire The Princeton Review."
The CEO said ST Unitas will take advantage of the U.S. education service firm's vast database and its extensive overseas network to become a leader in the $250 billion online education market.
"We have been successful in Korea because we work hard to offer top-quality education materials to our customers at affordable prices," Yoon said. "What we would like to do is take this business model in cooperation with The Princeton Review to the United States and other countries. I have no doubt ST Unitas will become a top global education platform provider."
The Princeton Review CEO Kate Walker said that in cooperation with ST Unitas, the company will continue to expand its market share and secure technology leadership in the rapidly growing online education market.
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