Without Wall Street analysts or stockholders looking over its shoulder, Education Management Corp. announced lost $9.7 million in its fiscal first quarter -- and didn't feel all that bad about it.

The drop-off -- it earned $14 million in the July-September quarter a year ago, when its shares were still trading publicly -- came despite record enrollment and a 14.8 percent increase in revenue to $290.5 million.

The company went private in June under a $3.4 billion buyout by Providence Equity Partners and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and yesterday, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John R. McKernan indicated the move freed it to spend more on operations by worrying less about investors' reaction.

"When we said we were going to become a private company, the reason for doing that was that we really see opportunities to invest in the long term," Mr. McKernan said. "It really comes down to marketing and admissions for those costs."

The Downtown-based operator of for-profit post-secondary schools in 24 states and Canada attributed the loss to increased expenses related to expansion and program improvements -- investments that it believes will pay off in the long run.

Education Management is just one of many public companies acquired by private equity firms in this year, including the HCA hospital company, the Univision media company and the Albertsons grocery chain. Experts attribute the recent appeal of "going private" in part to the burden of Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance and low interest rates that enable private equity companies to secure inexpensive debt.

At Education Management, for example, the company is now focusing on growth over profits. Student enrollment at the school's 72 different campuses passed 80,000 for the first time this quarter, with 6,400 of those students enrolled exclusively online -- a 79 percent jump in online enrollment from the year-ago period.