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Pearson PLC
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Pearson plc (; ) is a London-based education and 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. Marjorie Scardino has been CEO since 1997. The headquarters for Pearson is at 80 Strand, the former Shell Mex House. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating under the name of S.
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Encyclopedia
Pearson plc (; ) is a London-based education and 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. Marjorie Scardino has been CEO since 1997. The headquarters for Pearson is at 80 Strand, the former Shell Mex House. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
The Company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating under the name of S. Pearson & Son. 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.
In 1921 Pearson purchased a number of local newspapers in Britain, which it combined to form the Westminster Press. In 1957, it bought the Financial Times and acquired a 50% stake in The Economist. It purchased the publisher Longman in 1968.
The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1969. It went on to acquire the Penguin Group in 1970.
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 technology, lower bitrates 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.
During the 1990s, Pearson acquired a number of TV production and broadcasting assets and rid itself of most of its non-media assets.
Pearson acquired Simon & Schuster in 1998 immediately offloading all but its education business.
In September 2000, Pearson acquired National Computer Systems (NCS, Inc.) and entered the educational assessment and school management systems market in the United States.
In January 2003, Pearson sold their 22% stake in RTL Group, the largest commercial television and radio broadcaster in the EU.
Also in 2003 it secured control of Edexcel, the testing and assessment company. Pearson subsequently purchased a series of other testing and assessment businesses, beginning with Knowledge Technologies in 2004, AGS in 2005, and National Evaluation Systems and Promissor in 2006. 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.
In May 2007 Pearson announced that it had agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $950m in cash. Due to Pearson's market-leading position in the US textbook market they were not interested in the main Harcourt business on account of regulatory concerns.
In February 2008 Pearson announced the sale of its Pearson Data Management Division to M&F Worldwide, the corporate parent of Scantron Corporation, and this division is being folded into and managed by Scantron Corporation.
Operations
Pearson has three operating divisions: The Penguin Group, Pearson Education and The FT Group and
Penguin Group: trade publishing
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, Penguin Putnam Inc., 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."
Pearson Education: educational publishing, software, assessment 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.
Financial Times Group: financial publishing
Criticisms
Edexcel is the only large examination board to be held in private hands. Edexcel's reincarnation as a profit-making company has led to criticisms and calls into question conflict of interest within the education system, as a private publisher runs an examining board which relies on set texts for many of its courses. However, Edexcel has also continued to endorse textbooks published by non-Pearson companies.
See also
External links
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