Hi @elpaso96

Great straw. I just wanted to add that although the CS101 course was listed at $1,500, they twice dropped the price. I managed to enroll for only $500. I'll type up my thoughts on the course and course delivery when I get a bit further through.

Hi Soccerinvestor.

I made my straw public; it was previously private as it's basically a duplicate of yours and I didn't want to clog the feed up.

In addition to Bear's excellent points, my main takeaway is that UNSW and UNSW Global appear to be very different. As a top 4 Australian university, if it was a deal with UNSW directly I'd be much more excited. However; I do think this acts a sales lead or foot in the door for further business should they impress UNSW.

One of the minor tailwinds with any online learning company and Australian university's in particular is the university's sunk costs. They've spent millions (?) building expensive campuses and it's in their best interest to keep students coming to the campus. Other South East Asian universities don't have these same sunk costs as most haven't spent the same amount of money on expensive campuses. So while it's a headwind in Aus it's a tailwind in other countries. I also think this gives them an advantage against some of the American players - Coursera etc.

Covid and flight restrictions have given the sector a big push and University's depend on foreign students as they pay twice as much as Australian students (I experienced this first hand). I think this is the play here for UNSW - to keep the pipeline of foreign students ready to attend when restrictions open. I'd recommend visiting the UNSW Global website for a better idea of what they do

25-Oct-2020:  Just in response to soccerinvestor's updated valuation commentary, specifically:  "Potential deal UNSW Global. Don't think UNSW would sink funds into something they didn't think would be good long term."

Firstly, there is certainly a deal about to be announced between OLL and UNSW Global - their trading halt announcement said, "OpenLearning Limited requests back to back consecutive trading halts of two days each pending announcements in relation to: 1) a material license agreement with the University of New South Wales Global to design and deliver a new online education program for international students; and 2) a proposed capital raising."   - It's only the details of the agreement that have to be announced.

Not sure of how much in the way of funds UNSW are sinking into OLL, but I would point out that UNSW Global would be contracting OLL to provide a service (as described above) that presumably would be paid for by international students who could access it from their own home countries.  UNSW Global and OLL would then share the proceeds of the fees generated.  It is unlikely, IMO, that UNSW or UNSW Global would be investing in OLL in terms of becoming shareholders in OLL, and even if they chose to do that, I'm not sure that would mean too much.  I haven't seen much evidence in the past that Australian Universities or their subsidiaries have a good track record of profitable investments in ASX-listed companies.  It is far more likely that UNSW/UNSW Global see this link up as an opportunity to attempt to re-capture some of that international student business that they have lost due to Covid-19.  In that respect it is certainly good news for OLL, particularly if this online educational program for international students is successful.  It may even spur on some other Australian Uni's to look into similar arrangements.

There are a number of providers in this online learning space.  I note that Gaurav Sodhi and Carl Capolingua discussed JAN (Janison Education) on Ausbiz' "The Call" on Thursday (22-Oct-2020) - starting at the 43 minute mark - see here:  https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/the-call-thursday-22-october-?videoId=5027

Carl didn't mind JAN, but Gaurav pointed out that the market had appeared to shun JAN during the past 12 months, both pre-Covid and during the pandemic, even though similar companies, particularly companies providing online alternatives to traditional services were being eagerly bid up all over the place.  Looking at their charts, I would suggest that OLL is a much more popular stock than JAN, and OLL's SP has done much better as a result.  This deal (details to be announced shortly) between OLL and UNSW Global will only enhance OLL's rep as a superior player in the space I would expect.

Looking at "smart money" on the register, OLL had Regal Funds Management as substantial shareholders, but they dropped below 5% at the beginning of 2020 (so their current exposure to OLL is unknown, if they still have any).  JAN had Perennial Value Management on their register, at 14.98% on 19-May-20, but Perennial have been reducing their stake in JAN progressively and were down to 11.46% on 22-Sep-2020.  JAN still have NAB, HSBC and BNP Paribas (three banks) on their register - as substantial shareholders - as well as Wayne Houlden, an Executive Director and Vice Chairman of JAN, who holds 68 million JAN shares (~32.57% of the company).

OLL have two private Malaysian companies as substantial shareholders (Prestariang Capital Sdn Bhd with 6.88% and Magna Intelligent Sdn Bhd with 7.9%) as well as Clive Mayhew (with 5.93%), who was the OLL Chairman from March 2015 to November 2019.  Clive's LinkedIn.Com profile describes him as "A highly driven and dynamic Philanthropist and Technology Entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience primarily in the Technology sector. With a wealth of expertise across international markets, Clive specialises in exponentially growing businesses from angel investment stage through to maturity."  Clive is also the founder of "The Golf Challenge", a new TV series that is currently being developed.

Of the two, I prefer OLL, however I do not currently hold shares in either of them.  Too many good ideas but not enough capital.  If you spread your money too thinly your returns can be adversely impacted.  While I like OLL, it is just not one of my very best ideas at this point.  Which is probably mostly because I prefer other sectors as a general rule, being sectors that I think I understand better, however I can certainly see the appeal, and the tailwinds.  And I think OLL will likely do well from here.