Pearson PLC >From Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_PLC> , the free encyclopedia Pearson PLC is a British multinational <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation> publishing <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing> and education <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education> company headquartered in London <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London> . It is the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world. Pearson holds 47% in Penguin Random House <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Random_House> , the world's largest consumer book publisher, and 50% stake in the Economist Group <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist_Group> , the publishing group which specialises in international business. Pearson has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stock_Exchange> and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTSE_100_Index> . It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange> in the form of American Depository Receipts <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Depository_Receipts> . History 1844 to 1915 The company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating in Yorkshire under the name of S. Pearson & Son. In 1880, control passed to his grandson Weetman Dickinson Pearson <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weetman_Pearson,_1st_Viscount_Cowdray> , an engineer, who in 1890 moved the business to London and turned it into one of the world's largest construction companies. The company built the Blackwall Tunnel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwall_Tunnel> between 1892 and 1897. In November 1915, the firm began construction of HM Factory, Gretna <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Factory,_Gretna> , the largest cordite <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordite> factory in the UK during World War I <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I> . 1915 to 1990 In 1919, the firm acquired a 45% stake in the London branch of merchant bankers Lazard Brothers <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazard> , an interest which was increased to 80% in 1932 during the depression years. Pearson continued to hold a 50% stake until 1999. In 1921, Pearson purchased a number of local daily and weekly newspapers in the United Kingdom, which it combined to form the Westminster Press group. The original construction business was shut down in the 1920s. In 1957, it bought the Financial Times <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times> and acquired a 50% stake in The Economist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist> . It purchased the publisher Longman <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longman> in 1968. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stock_Exchange> in 1969. It went on to buy paperback publisher Penguin <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books> in 1970, and in 1972, children's imprint Ladybird Books <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladybird_Books> . In 1986, Pearson invested in the British Satellite Broadcasting <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Satellite_Broadcasting> consortium, which, a few years later merged with Sky TV <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Television_plc> to form a new company, British Sky Broadcasting <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSkyB> (BSkyB). 1990 to 2000 During the 1990s, Pearson acquired a number of TV production and broadcasting assets (including former ITV <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_(TV_network)> franchisee Thames Television <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Television> ) and sold most of its non-media assets, under the leadership of future U.S. Congressman Bob Turner <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Turner_(American_politician)> . Westminster Press was sold to Newsquest <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsquest> in 1996. Pearson acquired the education division of HarperCollins <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarperCollins> in 1996 from News Corporation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation> , and Simon <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%26_Schuster> & Schuster in 1998 from Viacom and merged it with its own education unit, Addison-Wesley <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison-Wesley> Longman to form Pearson Education. 2000 to 2005 In 2000, Pearson acquired Dorling Kindersley <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorling_Kindersley> , the illustrated reference publisher and integrated it within Penguin. In 2002, Pearson purchased Rough Guides <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Guides> , the travel publisher, and brought it under Penguin. In September 2000, Pearson acquired National Computer Systems (NCS) and entered the educational assessment and school management systems market in the United States. In 2002, Pearson sold its 22% stake in RTL Group <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTL_Group> for 1.5 billion Euros. In 2003 it acquired Edexcel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edexcel> , a provider of qualifications in the UK. In 2004, Pearson acquired about 80% stake in Meximerica Media Inc for $16.5 million for the swelling U.S. Hispanic market. Pearson subsequently purchased a series of other testing and assessment businesses, including Knowledge Technologies in 2004, AGS in 2005, and National Evaluation Systems and Promissor in 2006. 2005 to 2012 In April 2006, Pearson acquired National Evaluation Systems, a provider of customised state assessments for teacher certification in the US. In May 2007, Pearson announced that it had agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harcourt_Assessment> and Harcourt Education International <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harcourt_(publisher)> from Reed Elsevier <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Elsevier> for $950m in cash. Pearson completed the acquisition of Harcourt Assessment on 30 January 2008, merging the acquired businesses into Pearson Assessment & Information. In 2007, Pearson acquired eCollege, a digital learning technology group for $477m. 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 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_answer_sheet> Corporation (part of M <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%26F_Worldwide> &F Worldwide) which had been its main competitor. In 2009, Pearson acquired Wall Street English for $145m. In 2010, Pearson acquired the school learning systems division of Sistema Educacional Brasileiro (SEB) for $497m. In 2010, Pearson sold its 61% stake in Interactive Data to investment funds managed by Silver Lake Partners <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Lake_Partners> and Warburg Pincus <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_Pincus> for $2 billion. In July 2011 Pearson announced the creation of Pearson College <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_College_(UK)> , a British degree provider based in London and Manchester. Also in 2011, Pearson acquired Connections Education and agreed to sell its 50% stake in FTSE International Limited to the London Stock Exchange for £450 million. Pearson entered into talks with rival conglomerate Bertelsmann <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertelsmann> , over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Penguin Group <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Group> and Random House <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House> in October 2012. The houses are considered two of the "Big Six" publishing companies. On 29 October 2012, Pearson said it would merge Penguin Books <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books> with Bertelsmann <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertelsmann> 's Random House to create the world's biggest consumer book <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book> publisher. In May 2012 Pearson announced its acquisition of Global English Corporation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalEnglish> , a Silicon Valley <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley> , California Business English <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_English> software and solutions company, in an all-cash transaction. 2013 to present In May 2013, Pearson announced a new restructuring plan to invest in digital learning and emerging markets, after predicting weaker earnings. The change supports the decoupling of the Penguin consumer publishing business into a separate entity with Random House (forming Penguin Random House). The new structure combines the separate education companies, Pearson International and Pearson North America under one Pearson company. Pearson will organize around three global lines of business – School, Higher Education and Professional. The Financial Times Group and Pearson English will form part of Pearson Professional. In July 2014, Pearson announced it had cut 4,000 jobs, representing 10% of the company's workforce. Pearson announced on 23 July 2015 that it had agreed to sell the FT Group, which includes business daily Financial Times <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times> , to Japanese media group Nikkei <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Keizai_Shimbun> for £844 million, or $1.32 billion. The sale does not include FT Group's London property at One Southwark Bridge. In August 2015, Pearson's sold its 50% stake in The Economist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist> to the Agnelli <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnelli> family for £469 million who previously held 4.7% of the group;. The remaining 50% of The Economist Group is owned by the Schroders <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schroders> , Cadburys <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadbury_family> and the Rothschilds <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_family> . Operations Pearson is now organised into three main business groupings: Pearson School, Pearson Higher Education and Pearson Professional (includes Financial Times Group and Pearson English). In 2011 Pearson generated total revenues of £5.9 billion, of which £4,390 million were from Pearson Education, £1,045 million from Penguin Group, and £427 million from Financial Times Group. In 2011, 60% of Pearson's revenues were generated in North America, 23% in Europe, 11% in Asia, and 6% in the rest of the world. Pearson School Pearson School was created when the School businesses from Pearson International and Pearson North America were merged in 2013. They provide textbooks and digital technologies to teachers and students across school ages. Pearson's school brands include BTEC, Bug Club, Edexcel, Fronter, GradPoint, Schoolnet, and SuccessNet. Pearson Higher Education Pearson Higher Education was created when the Higher Education businesses from Pearson International and Pearson North America were merged in 2013. They provide textbooks and digital technologies to teachers and students across Higher Education. Pearson's higher education brands include eCollege, Mastering/MyLabs and Financial Times Publishing. Pearson Professional Pearson Professional includes Pearson English and Pearson VUE. Pearson English provides textbooks, digital technologies and education services to teachers and students across English-language learning. Pearson English is made up of: – Pearson ELT (English language Teaching): English language textbooks and e-learning – Pearson English Business Solutions (formerly Global English): English language e-learning for large corporations – Wall Street English: English language schools for business professionals Pearson VUE is a provider in electronic testing for regulatory and certification boards. It delivers certification testing in over 150 countries. It is the world leader in computer based assessment testing. The Financial Times (FT Group) formed part of this Pearson division until it was sold off to Nikkei. Criticism Concerns exist around the amount of influence Pearson, a for-profit company, has on public education. Other concerns are around the multi-million dollar contracts, and in one instance, laying off teachers to offset the high costs of testing. United Kingdom Pearson owns Edexcel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edexcel> , an education and examination board. Edexcel has produced qualifications which link to Pearson texts, although Edexcel also continues to endorse textbooks published by other companies. Logo: -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. 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