Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) that runs the nation-wide exam prep chain Aakash Insititute has confirmed that it is in talks with EdTech giant BYJU'S "for building a strong partnership". Earlier, there were reports about BYJU'S acquiring AESL, which runs a large number of coaching institutes across the country, soon, in one of the largest EdTech acquisitions in the world.
In a statement, AESL said that its founders JC Chaudhry and Aakash Chaudhry will continue to run the company along with its existing management team. "Putting these speculations to rest, we would like to state that AESL is on a mission to build India’s largest digitally-enabled, omnichannel education company. We will accelerate our digital transformation and deliver phenomenal value to our students. We will rapidly expand our omnichannel and digital offerings, as we embark on the next trajectory of quality education and growth," reads a statement. "We remain true to our Founder’s motto of ‘Student First,’ enabling us to deliver long-term value to our students, employees, investors and other stakeholders," it adds.
Various news reports had previously stated that the buyout deal between Aakash and BYJU'S will be closed in the next two to three months and that Aakash's founders, the Chaudhry family will exit completely, while Blackstone Group which backs AESL will swap a portion of its 37.5 per cent equity in Aakash for BYJU'S stake. In 2017, BYJU'S had acquired TutorVista from Pearson's. Recently, it had brought online coding education platform Whitehat Jr for around $300 million.
