AICPA Acquires CPE Provider

As part of a strategic restructuring of its CPE division, the AICPA recently announced the purchase for $1 million of Professional Development Institute (PDI), the nation's second-largest provider of professional education programs for CPAs.

The AICPA will move most of its CPE product development and CPE-related state society operations to PDI's new headquarters in Lewisville, Texas. AICPA/PDI will be responsible for developing both group-study and self-study courses. It will also be responsible for state society sales and account management for group-study courses, course catalogues and discussion leader administration.

The marketing groups for CPE self-study and conferences will remain in the AICPA's New York office, and the conferences development unit will remain in the New Jersey office.

At the same time it announced the purchase of PDI, the Institute also revealed it had signed a letter of agreement with IKON Office Solutions. According to the agreement, the AICPA will outsource most of its current printing operation to IKON; however, it will maintain a small in-house facility in the Institute's New Jersey office.

In all the restructuring was expected to affect approximately 50 Institute employees. Employees whose jobs have been eliminated will be transferred within the Institute, given the opportunity to relocate to PDI or IKON, or assisted with outplacement services.

In other moves to improve its CPE offerings, the Institute reached an agreement with Princeton Learning Systems, located in Princeton, New Jersey, to provide a series of interactive online courses. Earlier, the Institute had acquired the Seminar Business series—professional education courses—from Practitioners Publishing Co., a division of Research Institute of America Group. n