Autism Treatment Centers Approved for $48.5 Million Bankruptcy Sale
The fate of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) could finally be one step closer to being resolved!
Doreen Granpeesheh, the founder and original owner of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), recently found out that she won her bid to purchase back her company for $48.5 million after it filed for bankruptcy.
Granpeesheh’s winning bid, a $48.5 million cash package, which included $25 million of her money, $10 million from former CARD managing director Sangam Pant, and $11 million from a private equity firm, Audax.
The final purchase price is almost double the original $25 million offer that Granpeesheh made but still much less than the original $300 million payout she received when she sold the company to Blackstone almost five years ago.
“It was such a relief, I was shaking and crying and laughing out loud, you know, like, really like laughing as if I’ve seen a comedy scene or something, and feeling so emotional,” Granpeesheh says.
Granpeesheh stepped down as CARD’s CEO in 2019, after almost 30 years running the company, and ultimately left the board in 2022. However, things for CARD gradually worsened, and ultimately the company was forced to file for bankruptcy in June 2023.
According to court filings, CARD will keep all 130 centers open after the sale. However, several of the centers in New York, New Jersey, and Nevada will be separated and operate under the control of Audax-affiliated entities. This leaves CARD with 112 centers, much less than the 265 it operated during its peak in 2018.
CARD has struggled over the last few years due to the COVID pandemic, increased labor costs, changes to insurance payout policies, staffing shortages, and according to former employees, a business model which puts profits ahead of patient care and welfare.
During the bankruptcy case, Judge David Jones stressed the urgency for speed, citing the importance of the company’s ongoing treatment of young children.
“Not only does [CARD] provide jobs and fill a spot in the market, but it also provides a very valuable service to a segment of our population that needs help,” Jones said in Wednesday’s hearing. He also noted that he was pleased with how smoothly and quickly the process had gone and was surprised that the recent auction had managed to double CARD’s original sale price.
Granpeesheh understands that getting CARD to break even won’t be easy but has been working on plans to make the company leaner, reducing operating costs and expenditures. In the next year, she plans to visit each CARD location in person to talk with employees to better understand the challenges that they’re facing.
Granpeesheh still has plans to open new CARD locations eventually, but she acknowledges that she can’t rush into the growth this time around. “It’s a matter of getting to know the newest generation of CARD workers and not putting too much pressure on growing fast.”
“It doesn’t feel like a challenge because I built it,” she says. “It doesn’t feel scary. It feels exciting.”
Autism Treatment Centers Approved for $48.5 Million Sale – Conclusion
Hopefully, with the original leadership back in place and a stronger focus on care rather than profits, the CARD centers will continue to provide valuable services to the community and expand and allow more children with autism to benefit from their services.
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