| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Traded as | LSE: PSON, NYSE: PSO |
| Industry | Media Education |
| Founded | 1844 |
| Headquarters | 80 Strand London, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Glen Moreno (Chairman) Dame Marjorie M. Scardino (CEO) |
| Products | Books Newspapers |
| Revenue | £5.663 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | £743 million (2010)[1] |
| Net income | £1,300 million (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 37,000 (2010)[2] |
| Website | www.pearson.com |
Pearson plc (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO) is a global publisher and the world's leading learning company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has market-leading businesses across education (Prentice Hall, Longman & FT Press), consumer (Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird) and business information (Financial Times). It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world.[3][4].
Pearson has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Marjorie Scardino has been CEO since 1997.
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The Company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating under the name of S. Pearson & Son.[5] In 1880, control passed to his grandson Weetman, an engineer, who in 1890 moved the business to London and turned it into one of the world's largest construction companies.[5]
The company built the Blackwall Tunnel between 1892 and 1897.
In 1919 the firm acquired a 45% stake in the London branch of merchant bankers Lazard Brothers, an interest which would be increased to 80% in 1932 during the depression years. Pearson continued to hold a 50% stake until 1999.[6]
In 1921 Pearson purchased a number of local newspapers in the United Kingdom, which it combined to form the Westminster Press.[5] In 1957, it bought the Financial Times[5] and acquired a 50% stake in The Economist. It purchased the publisher Longman in 1968.[5]
The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1969.[5] It went on to acquire Penguin Books in 1970[5], and in 1972, Ladybird Books.
In 1986, Pearson participated in the British Satellite Broadcasting consortium. BSB, choosing expensive methods and technology, was out-manoeuvered by Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television, which used proven and simpler technology, and leased transponders on Astra satellites. Sky gained an important foothold in the multichannel market and the eventual "merger" was effectively a takeover of BSB by Sky, the new company being renamed British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) a few years later.[7]
During the 1990s, Pearson acquired a number of TV production and broadcasting assets and rid itself of most of its non-media assets, under the leadership of future U.S. Congressman Bob Turner.
Pearson acquired the education division of Simon & Schuster in 1998.[8] That same year, Pearson merged all its units--Penguin Books, Ladybird Books, Dorling Kindersley, and Frederick Warne & Co--to form the Penguin Group.[9] In November of that year, All American Television, which Pearson bought a year earlier, became Pearson Television.
In September 2000, Pearson acquired National Computer Systems (NCS, Inc.) and entered the educational assessment and school management systems market in the United States.[10]
In 2002, Pearson sold its production unit to form FremantleMedia.
In January 2003, Pearson sold its 22% stake in German media conglomerate RTL Group, the largest commercial television and radio broadcaster in the EU.[11]
Also in 2003 it secured control of Edexcel, the testing and assessment company.[12] Pearson subsequently purchased a series of other testing and assessment businesses, beginning with Knowledge Technologies in 2004,[13] AGS in 2005,[14] and National Evaluation Systems[15] and Promissor in 2006.[16] The combination of acquisitions and organic growth have made Pearson the largest assessment and testing provider in the United States.
Pearson sold its international government services (Pearson Government Solutions) division to Veritas Capital in March 2007. The new stand-alone company, Vangent, Inc, has its international headquarters in Arlington, VA, with offices in London, Rotherham, Yorkshire, and Canada.[17]
In May 2007 Pearson announced that it had agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $950m in cash.[18] Due to Pearson's market-leading position in the U.S. textbook market they were not interested in the main Harcourt business on account of regulatory concerns.[19] Pearson completed the acquisition of Harcourt Assessment on 30 January 2008, merging the acquired businesses into Pearson Assessment & Information.[20]
In February 2008 Pearson announced the sale of its Pearson Data Management Division (formerly the scanner manufacturing and servicing division of NCS Inc.) to Scantron Corporation (part of M & F Worldwide) which had been its main competitor.[21]
Pearson has three operating divisions: The Penguin Group, Pearson Education and The Financial Times Group.[22]
Most Pearson trade publishing is done by the Penguin Group, which includes international imprints such as Allen Lane, Avery, Berkley Books, Dial, Dutton, Dorling Kindersley, Grosset & Dunlap, Hamish Hamilton, Ladybird, Plume, Puffin, Penguin, Putnam, Michael Joseph, Riverhead, Rough Guides, and Viking.
Infoplease is a website devoted to "providing authoritative answers to all kinds of factual questions since 1938 first as popular radio quiz show, then starting in 1947 as an annual almanac, and since 1998 on the internet."[23]
Pearson Education operates educational publishing and publishes software, assessments and training. Some of Pearson's educational publishing imprints include Pearson Longman, Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Benjamin Cummings, Pearson Scott Foresman.
New York Institute of Finance provides financial training.[24]
Financial Times Group operates financial publishing.
Edexcel is the only large examination board to be held in private hands. Edexcel's change from a charity to a profit-making company has led to criticisms and calls into question conflict of interest within the education system. As a part of Pearson (a private publisher) Edexcel has produced qualifications which link to Pearson texts. Edexcel also continues to endorse textbooks published by non-Pearson companies.[12] Edexcel is regulated by Ofqual (the regulator for UK qualifications).
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