Dive Brief:
- Kevin Modany, CEO of ITT Educational Services, the for-profit owner of ITT Technical Institutes and Daniel Webster College, will step down by Feb. 5, the company announced Monday.
- Investors haven’t been pleased with ITT of late: Its stock price had dropped to $7.72 on Tuesday morning from $14.61 on Friday.
- One of the sources of investor displeasure was a real estate deal that would have sold 24 properties but fell through on Friday.
Dive Insight:
College Portfolio Buyer was to buy 24 properties from ITT, but it wanted to extend its due diligence deadline to Sept. 15 from July 31. ITT declined, saying it would rather talk to other potential buyers. With the search on for a new CEO, ITT’s board has created a new position, executive chairman of the board, until a new chief executive is hired. John Dean, an independent director, will serve in the new position. ITT warned investors in an early July filing that it may experience more scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education, along with potential loss of federal funding, because it missed a deadline to file a financial statement and compliance audit for 2013.