IPO funds also helped the public company acquire and develop traditional day-care businesses in Boise, Idaho, where it now operates 14 centers. The private company has grown more slowly, adding five centers since 1995 for a total of 49. We wouldn't have had that to lose in the private company. But the downside of public ownership has been just as evident. That would be all right if the stock did well.
Few people are surprised.
The market wants to see regular earnings increases, and Kids Quest has been growing unevenly. Yet, with its stock in the doldrums, Kids Quest can't do a secondary offering to replace the exhausted IPO proceeds. We've created a business nobody else has and expanded it,'' says William Dunkley, 50. While the Dunkleys expand the business for the long term, they feel the market's pressures. The private company still has its privacy and can do what it wants to do,'' says Kevin Greer, who recently left as CFO of both companies.