Yeah it's true. I must say I think it would be dreadful for a private equity firm/ Venture Capital backed firm to buy the company as there sole objective will be to strip everything to the bones in terms of cost. cut corners, lean back on the head count and make a quick profit to re-sell on in 2-4 years time. I would think twice about investing vast sums of money and my career and thus future with a VC backed training provider. The idea may work for product based companies but surely not training providers............OAT may have a good(ish!) name and respectable brand but it could be demolished in a heartbeat.
Clearly, little idea of what Private Equity/Venture Capital actually do then...
I highly doubt they would be at all interested in the business anyway, as there is so little in the way of contracted ongoing revenues - too much cyclical business dependent upon the business cycle - few banks would lend to it for a buyout. You don't see students returning year after year!
Trade buyer would make far more sense.