Pearson to Sell Financial Times and Focus Solely on ‘Global Education Strategy’

Associate Editor

Pearson announced Thursday that it will sell the FT Group, which includes the Financial Times newspaper, to the Japanese company, Nikkei Inc., for the equivalent of about $1.3 billion in cash.

The move signals the London-based company’s intent “to be 100 percent focused on our global education strategy,” said John Fallon, Pearson’s chief executive, in a statement.

To many in the world of K-12, it might seem that Pearson is already just that focused on education. The Wall Street Journal reported that Pearson generates about 60 percent of its sales in North America, and three-quarters of its revenue from education. For years, Pearson had rejected rumors that it would sell the paper, the Journal wrote.

While indicating that the company has been the “proud proprietor” of the FT for nearly 60 years, Fallon added that the world of media had reached an inflection point “driven by the explosive growth of mobile and social,” which means that FT would be better suited to joining a global, digital news business.

Pearson’s market presence in education—in the U.S. and worldwide—continues to be massive. My colleague Sean Cavanagh writes regularly about the company’s assessment contracts in the U.S., and its acquisitions. (See some recent stories below.) Last month the company reported that it was jettisoning PowerSchool for $350 million, in a shift away from management systems.

See also:

 

14 thoughts on “Pearson to Sell Financial Times and Focus Solely on ‘Global Education Strategy’

  1. Your article is very useful, the content is great, I have read a lot of articles, but for your article, it left me a deep impression, thank you for sharing.

  2. I read your post. It is very informative and helpful to me. I admire the message valuable information you provided in your article. Thank you for posting, again!

  3. Pearson focuses on education because he wants the world’s future to be sustainable. only with experienced knowledge can any profession be developed. The key is to be trained and Pearson is starting to do just that puzzle jigsaw

  4. The article has extensive knowledge and is well organized. I have visited your website. It is very interesting and impressive. I enjoyed your post very much. Thanks for sharing such a great article with us. I want to come again. Please update.

Leave a Reply