Career Education Corporation Completes Acquisition of Harrington Institute of Interior Design

Business Wire, Jan 5, 1999

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 1999--Career Education Corporation (Nasdaq:CECO) today announced it has completed its acquisition of Harrington Institute of Interior Design, located in Chicago. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The school, which has approximately 400 students, will continue to operate under its current name.

CEC announced on December 29, 1998 that it had entered into an agreement to purchase Harrington Institute, the company's third acquisition last year. The company acquired the Southern California School of Culinary Arts last March and the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in July.

Career Education Corporation also offers design programs at the Al Collins Graphic Design School, Tempe, Arizona; Brooks College, Long Beach, California; Allentown Business School, Allentown, Pennsylvania; Brown Institute, Mendota Heights, Minnesota; the Katharine Gibbs Schools, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island; the International Academy of Merchandising & Design, Chicago and Tampa, and the International Academy of Design, Montreal and Toronto.

Career Education Corporation is one of the largest providers of private, for-profit post secondary education in North America, with approximately 15,800 students enrolled. The Company currently operates 21 campuses in 13 states and two Canadian provinces. The Company's schools enjoy long operating histories and offer a wide variety of bachelor's degree, associate degree and diploma programs in career-oriented disciplines within the Company's core curricula of computer technologies, visual communications and design technologies, business studies and culinary arts.

The forward-looking statements contained in the release are based upon various assumptions, and certain risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated. Factors that could cause such differences include these matters disclosed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Career Education Corporation assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements.