Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

Well, there goes a great company

I hope they leave the books alone at least.

LOL... One more way to use social media to lose one's job.

Thanks Chris. We at Veritas Prep heard the same thing a couple of weeks ago, and have been working on confirming it. It will be interesting to see how they manage the two services and the two brands. If quality starts to suffer, it will be difficult for them to justify the acquisition.

Scott

_________________
Veritas Prep | GMAT Prep | MBA Admissions Consulting | Your MBA Game Plan

Enroll now. Pay later. Take advantage of Veritas Prep's flexible payment plan options

To all --

Kaplan did acquire Manhattan GMAT, but intends to maintain it as a separate operating entity. Both Kaplan GMAT and Manhattan GMAT will continue to be run independently by their respective pre-acquisition management teams. Students will see no change. Both organizations remain committed to providing students with an outstanding student experience.


Jason Moss
Vice President, Graduate Programs
Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

_________________
Jason Moss
VP of Grad Programs, Kaplan

At the end of last year, Manhattan GMAT was acquired by Kaplan.

Our founder, Zeke Vanderhoek, has been working on an innovative charter school (www.tepcharter.org) since the beginning of 2007. Zeke’s school opened its first 5th grade class this past September, 2009, with Zeke as its principal. For more about TEP, click here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/nyregion/07charter.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=zeke%20vanderhoek&st=cse&oref=slogin

Being the owner of a company and the principal of a new charter school are both essentially full-time endeavors, and though Zeke had stepped away from day-to-day operations at MGMAT, he concluded that he couldn’t really effectively do both (despite being an obviously very talented guy!). Enter Kaplan.

Kaplan and Manhattan GMAT, despite being competitors in the marketplace, have always held each other in mutual respect. In fact, Kaplan has told us in no uncertain terms, “Keep doing what you’re doing!” and wants us to focus on what we’re best at - delivering a great educational experience. Accordingly, MGMAT is continuing to operate independently, with the same team, Instructors, and curriculum; we’re still working as hard as ever (shameless plug: We have a new advanced math book coming out in the Spring!).

Students should have the same expectations of us that they’ve always had - we’ll be here doing our best to meet and exceed them every day.

Sincerely,

Andrew Yang
President
Manhattan GMAT

Hey Jason,

It sounds as if you're acknowledging that MGMAT's product is better than Kaplan's. ("Kaplan did acquire Manhattan GMAT, but intends to maintain it... Students will see no change.")

Is the plan therefore to keep MGMAT as the premium brand and Kaplan as the middle tier brand? That would explain keeping them separate. How are you going to keep Kaplan GMAT teachers making $20-30/hour happy when their MGMAT brethren are making $100/hr?

It sounds like the famous "Black&Decker/Dewalt" case in business school -- and certainly they merged very successfully while keeping separate identities. I look forward to seeing the results...

Jose

_________________
Jose Ferreira
Founder and CEO, Knewton, Inc.
http://www.knewton.com/gmat

This could be. I know Kaplan has a "new course" launching in less than two weeks... Maybe that's the start of the move down market for that brand? Seems very risky to me, but then at least the pieces would seem to fit together.

Scott

_________________
Veritas Prep | GMAT Prep | MBA Admissions Consulting | Your MBA Game Plan

Enroll now. Pay later. Take advantage of Veritas Prep's flexible payment plan options

Interesting... I had no idea! Hopefully with all of the MBA's floating around the two companies it'll work out for the best!

_________________
Blogged my way through the application process, and 1st year of school, now a 2nd yr at the Johnson School at Cornell University - Follow my MBA journey here @ www.money9111.blogspot.com | 2 New Posts on 3/5

Alumni networking app that shows you your alumni near you when you're on the go! http://www.MyAlumniApplication.com