Dive Brief:
- Arizona State University has signed off on a deal to take over the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
- Allen Morrison, a global management scholar at Arizona State and former Thunderbird professor, is the new chief executive officer at Thunderbird.
- Arizona State will eliminate $22 million of Thunderbird’s debt, Thunderbird will contribute $20 million in cash to cover initial losses, and most of Thunderbird’s faculty and staff will come over to the university, the Arizona Republic reported.
Dive Insight:
Before the deal closes, which is expected by Dec. 31, it needs to include final arrangements from the U.S. Department of Education and the creditors of Thunderbird. Thunderbird had lined up a sale to the for-profit Laureate Education, but the school’s alumni were fiercely opposed and the deal was rejected by the Higher Learning Commission. Thunderbird lost $6.4 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013, when it had 637 employees, 1,100 students in its degree programs, and 2,600 students in its executive training programs. Enrollment has shrunk since then. Thunderbird’s campus in Glendale is a couple of miles from Arizona State’s West campus.