>7674893
Kinder Care Mike Millikin "the junk bond king"
In the 1980s, Kinder-Care acquired a wide variety of companies such as American Savings for $188 million.[9] They also purchased photo studios, shoe stores and even invested in a foreign fertilizer manufacturer.
Chief Executive Grassgreen, informed by Michael Milken, an investor from the firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert, led the company on an ill-conceived diversification plan in the late 1980s. As a result, the company's debt load increased from $10 million to about $620 million in 1988. The company found itself in deep financial trouble after the stock market crash in October 1987.
During this period, Tull Gearreald, an investment banker, took command of the company as president and CEO. Caught in a cash squeeze in January 1991, Kinder-Care stopped paying interest on its debt.[10] Still faltering under its high debt load, KinderCare filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 10, 1992. The company continued operating, although, according to a 1988 Forbes article, less than half of Kinder-Care's sales and profits for the year were expected to come from its child care centers. In January 1993, in a move that helped their balance sheet, KinderCare sold off Sylvan Learning Centers for $8 million.
KinderCare was acquired in 2005 by the Knowledge Learning Corporation (KLC) division of Michael Milken's privately held education services firm, Knowledge Universe.[11] The deal, valued at over US$1 billion, made KLC the nation’s largest private child care and education provider.[12]
In 2012, company revenues were about $1.45 billion, down from approximately $1.6 billion in 2010.[13]
In July 2015, Partners Group, a Swiss enterprise, bought Knowledge Universe.[14][15] Knowledge Universe renamed itself as KinderCare Education in January 2016.[16] The parent company, KinderCare Education, also operates Knowledge Beginnings, Children’s Creative Learning Centers (CCLC), and Champions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KinderCare_Learning_Centers