28 Facts About Pearson PLC

In 2013 Pearson PLC merged its Penguin Books with German conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Pearson PLC has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Pearson PLC built the Admiralty Harbour at Dover, the Halifax Dry Dock in Canada, the East River Railway Tunnels in New York City, the Mexican Grand Canal that drained Mexico City, the Tehuantepec Railway in Mexico, and railways and harbours around the world.

In November 1915, the firm began construction of HM Factory, Gretna, the largest cordite factory in the UK during World War I In 1907 Weetman Pearson founded investment company Whitehall Securities Corporation Ltd which played an important role in the development of British airlines in the 1930s.

In 1921, Pearson PLC purchased a number of local daily and weekly newspapers in the United Kingdom, which it combined to form the Westminster Press group.

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In 1986, Pearson PLC invested in the British Satellite Broadcasting consortium, which, a few years later merged with Sky Television to form a new company, British Sky Broadcasting.

In March 1994, Pearson PLC acquired software publisher The Software Toolworks for, which was rebranded Mindscape.

Pearson PLC acquired Dorling Kindersley, the illustrated reference publisher and integrated it within Penguin, in March 2000 and then acquired National Computer Systems in September 2000 so entering the educational assessment and school management systems market in the United States.

Pearson PLC 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.

Pearson PLC acquired National Evaluation Systems, a provider of customised state assessments for teacher certification in the US, in April 2006 and announced that it had agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $950m in cash in May 2007.

Pearson PLC acquired eCollege, a digital learning technology group for $477m in May 2007.

Pearson PLC acquired Wall Street English for $145m in 2009 and bought the school learning systems division of Sistema Educacional Brasileiro for $497m in 2010.

In July 2011, Pearson PLC announced the creation of Pearson PLC College, a British degree provider based in London.

Pearson PLC entered into talks with rival conglomerate Bertelsmann, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Penguin Group and Random House in October 2012.

On 29 October 2012, Pearson PLC said it would merge Penguin Books with Bertelsmann's Random House to create the world's biggest consumer book publisher.

In May 2013, Pearson PLC announced a new restructuring plan to invest in digital learning and emerging markets, after predicting weaker earnings.

Pearson PLC announced on 23 July 2015 that it had agreed to sell the FT Group, which includes business daily Financial Times, to Japanese media group Nikkei for £844 million, or $1.

Pearson PLC retained the publishing rights to FT Press and licensed the trademark from Nikkei.

On 16 August 2017 Pearson PLC sold the language training subsidiary Global Education to Chinese company Pu-Xin Education for £62 million.

In 2019, Pearson PLC sold its US K-12 business to the private equity firm Nexus Capital Management.

In December 2021, Pearson PLC announced that Omid Kordestani had been appointed as the Board's chair.

Pearson PLC in Practice Technology, formerly Zenos IT Academy, was only part of Pearson PLC in Practice and was an institute offering government-funded apprenticeships for learners aged 16 to 24, and paid learning for people outside those boundaries.

Pearson PLC announced plans to exit Pearson PLC in Practice on 7 January 2013, although learners already signed up will be supported until the end of their courses.

Pearson PLC VUE co-sponsored the 10th Annual International Conference on Medical Regulation, which took place at the Ottawa Convention Centre in Ontario, Canada in October 2012.

Concerns exist around the amount of influence Pearson PLC, being a commercial company, has on public education.

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In 2017, more than six out of ten Pearson PLC's shareholders voted against the chief executive's pay package of £1.

Pearson PLC US has been criticised for using offshore tax avoidance schemes involving a host of companies at a service address in Luxembourg.

In June 2010, Pearson plc received notification that the Libyan Investment Authority founded by Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi as a sovereign fund, had acquired 24, 431, 000 shares within the company via Euroclear.