BALTIMORE, US — THE Wall Street Institute (WSI), a famous international multimedia English language teaching franchise was put up for sale in May.

　　WSI is experiencing difficulties in different parts of the world. Fourteen centres in Brazil have closed. Income in Spain fell to 20 million euros in 2003 from 70 million euros in 2001.

　　First established in 1972 in Italy, WSI quickly expanded to Switzerland and then Spain. It now has 350 centres in 26 countries, according to its own website.

　　In 1997, It was purchased by Sylvan Learning, which became Laureate Education Inc.

　　It wasn't until 2002, that it first became a concern for Sylvan. Several WSI centres closed due to the collapse of the multimedia language school market.

　　Later that year, Sylvan sold the Spanish operations to a consortium led by Luigi Peccenini, the original founder of WSI and master franchisee for WSI in China.

　　WSI came to China in 2000. It was one of the early advocates of teaching English with multimedia and quickly became famous in Beijing and Shanghai, the only two cities in China where it has classes.

　　Total enrolment is 15,000 across seven centres in Beijing and four in Shanghai. Courses include 17 levels of general English and six levels of business English.