Yipinet Expected to Announce Purchase

Yipinet, the Marina del Rey start-up that provides professional continuing education courses over the Internet, is expected to announce today that it has acquired rival Princeton Learning Systems of Princeton, N.J., for an undisclosed sum.

The purchase, which officials said won’t involve layoffs, will extend Yipinet’s offerings into the financial sector. Princeton already offers online courses in securities, banking and insurance to customers such as Prudential Insurance, PaineWebber’s Correspondent Services Corp., and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s Pershing Division.

Yipinet will relaunch those courses in the fall, Chief Executive Howard Marks said. The combined company will have about 30 corporate customers, 35,000 users and 50 employees, he said.

Year-old Yipinet offers courses for accountants via its Web site (https://www.yipinet.com) and on intranets. The company recently raised $12.5 million from private investors--in addition to $6 million raised earlier--to finance its expansion.

Marks said Yipinet is eyeing other deals that would allow it to offer courses in the health-care, information technology and real estate industries.