Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Nature of Operations and Liquidity

v2.4.1.9
Nature of Operations and Liquidity
9 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2015
Nature of Operations and Liquidity [Abstract]  
Nature of Operations and Liquidity

Note 1. Nature of Operations and Liquidity


Overview


Aspen Group, Inc. (together with its subsidiary, the “Company” or “Aspen”) is a holding company. Its subsidiary Aspen University Inc. was founded in Colorado in 1987 as the International School of Information Management. On September 30, 2004, it changed its name to Aspen University Inc. ("Aspen University").  On March 13, 2012, the Company was recapitalized in a reverse merger. All references to the Company or Aspen before March 13, 2012 are to Aspen University.


On April 5, 2013, the Company gave 120-day notice to CLS 123, LLC of its intent to terminate the agreement between the Company and CLS 123, LLC dated November 9, 2011. Moreover, at the end of the 120-day period, the Company no longer offered the “Certificate in Information Technology with a specialization in Smart Home Integration” program. Accordingly, the activities related to CLS (or the “Smart Home Integration Certificate” program) are treated as discontinued operations. As this component of the business was not sold, there was no gain or loss on the disposition of this component (see below “Discontinued Operations”).


On April 25, 2013, our Board of Directors approved a change in our fiscal year-end from December 31 to April 30, with the change to the calendar year reporting cycle beginning May 1, 2013. Consequently, we filed a Transition Report on Form 10-KT for the four-month transition period ended April 30, 2013.


Aspen University's mission is to offer any motivated college-worthy student the opportunity to receive a high quality, responsibly priced distance-learning education for the purpose of achieving sustainable economic and social benefits for themselves and their families.One of the key differences between Aspen and other publicly-traded, exclusively online, for-profit universities is that approximately 38% of our full-time degree-seeking students (as of January 31, 2015) were enrolled in Aspen's School of Nursing.



On November 10, 2014, Aspen University announced the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (“CCNE”) has granted accreditation to its Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (RN to BSN) until December 31, 2019. This newly accredited undergraduate degree program is expected to grow rapidly given Aspen's debtless education approach, which allows nurses to pay the $9,750 tuition for the 10-course RN to BSN completion program at $250 per month for 39 months. In fact, Aspen projects the BSN program to be the largest growth driver in the next 12 months, which we estimate will result in over 50% or the majority of the degree-seeking student body to be enrolled in the School of Nursing by early-2016. Initial marketing and enrollment results support this forecast.


Since 1993, we have been nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Accrediting Council (“DEAC”), a national accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (the “DOE”). On February 25, 2015, the DEAC informed Aspen University that it had renewed its accreditation for five years to January, 2019.


Basis of Presentation


A. Interim Financial Statements


The interim consolidated financial statements included herein have been prepared by the Company, without audit, pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). In the opinion of the Company's management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments and reclassifications and non-recurring adjustments) necessary to present fairly our results of operations for the three months ended January 31, 2015 and 2014, the nine months ended January 31, 2015 and 2014, our cash flows for the nine months ended January 31, 2015 and 2014, and our financial position as of January 31, 2015 have been made. The results of operations for such interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the operating results to be expected for the full year.


Certain information and disclosures normally included in the notes to the annual consolidated financial statements have been condensed or omitted from these interim consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, these interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Report on Form 10-K for the period ended April 30, 2014 as filed with the SEC on July 29, 2014. The April 30, 2014 balance sheet is derived from those statements.



B. Discontinued Operations


As of March 31, 2013, the Company decided to discontinue business activities related to its “Certificate in Information Technology with a specialization in Smart Home Integration” program so that it may focus on growing its full-time, degree-seeking student programs, which have higher gross margins. On April 5, 2013, the Company gave 120-day notice to CLS 123, LLC of its intent to terminate the agreement between the Company and CLS 123, LLC dated November 9, 2011. Thus, as of August 3, 2013, the Company is no longer offering the “Certificate in Information Technology with a specialization in Smart Home Integration” program. The termination of the “Smart Home Integration Certificate” program qualifies as a discontinued operation and accordingly the Company has excluded results for this component from its continuing operations in the consolidated statements of operations for all periods presented. The following table shows the results of the “Smart Home Integration Certificate” program component included in the income (loss) from discontinued operations:



For the

For the

Three Months Ended
January 31,

Nine Months Ended
January 31,

2015

2014

 

2015

   

2014

 
                         
                         

Revenues

  $     $     $     $ 549,125  
                                 

Costs and expenses:

                               

Instructional costs and services

                      494,213  

General and administrative

          (29,751 )           (29,751 )

Total costs and expenses

          (29,751 )           464,462  
                                 

Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of income taxes

  $     $ 29,751     $     $ 84,663  

 

The major classes of assets and liabilities of discontinued operations on the balance sheet are as follows:

  

January 31,

April 30,

 

2015

2014

 

Assets

   

Cash and cash equivalents

  $     $  

Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $486,781, and $481,531, respectively

          5,250  

Other current assets

           

Net assets from discontinued operations

  $     $ 5,250  
                 

Liabilities

               

Accounts payable

  $     $  

Accrued expenses

           

Deferred revenue

           

Net liabilities from discontinued operations

  $     $  


C. Liquidity


At January 31, 2015, the Company had a cash balance of approximately $2.0 million which includes $888,225 of restricted cash. In September 2014, the Company completed the second closing of its equity financing of $3,766,325. With the additional cash raised in the financing, the growth in the Company revenues and improving operating margins, the Company believes that it has sufficient cash to allow the Company to implement its long-term business plan.