Pearson PLC

Pearson plc (; ) is a London-based media conglomerate. It is the largest book publisher in the UK, India, Australia and New Zealand, and the second largest in the US and Canada. In 2003 it had sales of £4,048m ($7,246m) and operating profits of £490m ($877m). Marjorie Scardino has been CEO since 1997. Its headquarters today are at 80 Strand, the former Shell Mex House.

History

Pearson was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering company called S. Pearson & Son. In 1880, control passed to his grandson Weetman, an engineer who turned it into one of the world's largest construction companies. By 1920, it was a holding company with businesses in building, oil drilling and refining, and finance. That year, it purchased a number of local newspapers in Britain, which it combined to form the Westminster Press. In 1957, it bought the Financial Times and a 50% stake in The Economist. In 1968, it purchased the publisher Longman and, in 1971, Penguin Group.

At the end of the 1980s, Pearson participated in the British Satellite Broadcasting consortium. BSB, choosing expensive methods and technology, was superseded by Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television, which used proven technology and leased transponders on Astra satellites. This allowed Sky to gain an important foothold in the multichannel market and the eventual "merger" was effectively a takeover by Sky, the new company was renamed British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in late 1990.

During the 1990s, Pearson acquired a number of TV production and broadcasting assets and rid itself of most of its non-media assets. In January 2003, Pearson sold their 22% stake in RTL Group, the largest commercial television and radio broadcaster in the EU.

Holdings

Book Publishing

Allen Lane, Avery, Berkley Books, Dial, Dutton, Dorling Kindersley, Grosset & Dunlap, Hamish Hamilton, Ladybird, Plume, Puffin, Penguin, Penguin Putnam Inc., Michael Joseph, Riverhead, Rough Guides, Viking, Wharton School Publishing

Educational Publishing

Prentice Hall, Scott Foresman, Pearson Digital Learning, Pearson Learning Group, AGS Globe, Allyn & Bacon, Addison-Wesley, Longman, NCS Pearson, Adobe Press, Que Publishing, Sams Publishing, Cisco Press, New Riders, Peachpit Press, National Computer Systems, Scott Foresman, Family Education Network, Family Education, TeacherVision, LessonLab, Wharton School Publishing, Infoplease.com, and Factmonster.com

Periodicals

The Financial Times Group
FTSE International (50% stake)
The Economist Group (50% stake)

External links