Dive Brief:

• San Diego's ABC 10News reported Monday that Bridgepoint Education had laid off 167 employees with two month's severance.
• The station got the news about the third round of layoffs in 16 months from an anonymous source within the for-profit education company who was concerned that they would be among the next to be let go.
• Last month, a user known as "anonymous41668" posted in a job loss forum that the company was headed for a 52-week low and that "[a]s soon as our valuation drops the execs start cutting, let's see what happens here."

Dive Insight:

The layoffs come just as Bridgepoint is set to report its Q3 earnings results prior to the market opening Wednesday morning. Like many for-profit higher ed companies, Bridgepoint, which operates Ashford University and University of the Rockies, has recently seen financial issues, as well as state and federal investigations. Bridgepoint operates in a total of five states and has over 7,000 employees and, as of June, 61,000 students.