Apollo Education Group, which owns the University of Phoenix and BPP Law School, has been taken off the public market in a $1.14bn acquisition by a group of investors, who have pledged to raise estimations of the US's for-profit education sector.

Apollo Global, the investment branch of Apollo Education Group – one of the world's largest private education providers – has acquired Australia-based Open Colleges– a leading distance education provider in operation since 1910. Open Colleges says the deal makes international expansion more viable.