The student loan company SLM, better known as Sallie Mae, has taken a thrashing in recent years. In 2007, Sallie Mae's stock fell from $58 to $19.65 a share in the wake of a failed buyout attempt led by private equity firm J.C. Flowers. Shares sank as low as $3.19 in March 2009 amid the financial crisis, which froze the debt markets it relies on for funding. Last year, Congress passed legislation that knocked private lenders out of the business of making government-backed student loans, which had accounted for 80 percent of Sallie Mae's lending.
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