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.
Pearson started as a building and engineering company in 1844. By 1920, under the name S. Pearson & Son, it was a holding company with businesses in building, oil drilling and refining and finance. In 1920, 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.
During the 1990s, it acquired a number of TV production and broadcasting assets, and rid itself of most of its non-media assets.
In 2003 Pearson had sales of £4,048m ($7,246m) and operating profits of £490m ($877m).
Holdings include:
- Book Publishing: Penguin, Allen Lane, Avery, Berkley Books, Dial, Dutton, Dorling Kindersley, Grosset & Dunlap, Hamish Hamilton, Ladybird, Plume, Puffin, Putnam, Michael Joseph, Riverhead, Rough Guides, Viking
- Educational Publishing: Prentice Hall, Scott Foresman, Allyn & Bacon, Addison Wesley Longman, Macmillan USA, NCS Pearson, Adobe Press, Que, Cisco Press, New Riders, Peachpit Press, National Computer Systems, Learning Network, LessonLab
- 22% stake in RTL Group, the largest commercial television and radio broadcaster in the EU.
