Pearson

Company Website

• Pearson Education Division: http://www.pearsoned.com/
• Subsidiary of Pearson PLC (London, UK)

Location

Upper Saddle River, NJ (NYC Metropolitan area)

Financial Information

• Pearson PLC is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: PSO), since Sep. 2000
  • Annual Operating Revenue of the parent corporation (as of 31/12/2008): £4,913,000,000 ($7,162,000,000) (Source: ORBIS)
  • Global Higher Education Sales (as of 31/12/2008): £2,868,000,000 (Source: ORBIS)
  • Global Educational Services Sales (as of 30/06/2008): £1,078,000,000 (Source: ORBIS)
• Pearson Education Inc. is a wholly-owned private, indirect subsidiary of Pearson PLC
  • Annual Operating Revenue of Pearson Education (as of 2006): $878,400,000 (Source: ORBIS)

Mergers and Acquisitions

Essentially, Pearson PLC starts as an engineering and building company in London, moves into the media sector, and then internationalizes its business through further acquisitions. For an extremely detailed history of Pearson Education see: http://www.pearsoned.com/about/history.htm.

Pre-Pearson Education Acquisitions

• Simon and Schuster's educational businesses (Prentice Hall) (1998)

  Pearson Education is created from the merger of Addison-Wesley Longman and the educational businesses of Simon and Schuster. At this point, Pearson Education leads in every major sector of educational publishing, including elementary and secondary school, higher education, professional education, english language teaching (elt), and educational technology, both in the u.s. and internationally. Over 100 education brands including Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Allyn & Bacon, Addison-Wesley, Silver, Burdette and Ginn, Longman, Benjamin Cummings and Macmillan Publishing USA fall under Pearson's umbrella.

• HarperCollins (1996)

  Pearson purchases school and college publisher HarperCollins educational publishing and merges it into Addison-Wesley Longman.

• Addison Wesley (1988)

  Math and science publisher Addison-Wesley is purchased by Pearson and merged with Longman to create Addison-Wesley Longman.

Pearson Education Acquisitions

• eCollege.com (2007)

  Pearson Education Inc. acquired software technology provider eCollege.com Inc. on July 31, 2007, valuing the company at approximately $497 million after the separate sale of its Datamark subsidiary. (Source: ORBIS)

• ELLis Inc. (2006)

  Pearson Education Inc. acquired language training software provider (for K-12 and adult learners) ELLis Inc. on June 21, 2006 for integration in its Pearson Digital Learning unit. (Source: ORBIS)

• National Evaluation Systems Inc. (2006)

  Pearson PLC acquired National Evaluation Systems Inc. on April 25, 2006 to operate as a subsidiary of Pearson Education Inc.

• American Guidance Service, Inc. (2005)

  Pearson Education, Inc. acquired American Guidance Service, Inc.on August 11, 2005.

• Scholar Inc. (2003)

  Pearson Education Inc. acquired Scholar Inc. on November 5, 2003.

• LessonLab Inc. (2003)

  Pearson Education Inc. acquired LessonLab Inc. on October 2, 2003, incorporating all of Pearson Education's professional development businesses under the new LessonLab.

Product Divisions

• K-12: yes
• Higher Education: yes

Summary

"Pearson Education, Inc. [...] is the world's leading educational and professional publisher, educating 100 million people worldwide. The company provides scientifically research-based print and digital programs, such as academic, business and professional books. Pearson has the most widely trusted and respected programs in educational and professional publishing, and offers the most comprehensive range of educational programs, in all subjects, for every age and level of student, from preK-12 through higher education and on into professional life." (Source: ORBIS)

Brands

• Pearson Education: Prentice Hall, Longman, Scott Foresman, Addison Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cumminngs, PASeries, ELLis, Celebration Press, PEMSolutions, SuccessMaker, Waterford, and Family Education Network.
• Pearson PLC also owns the Penguin Group, the Financial Times, and The Economist.

Business Strategy

MyLab Course Management Software

"Pearson’s strongest digital producer is its MyLab program, which provides online homework, guided solutions, multimedia, tests and e-books and is adaptive to the individual needs of students. In 2007, Pearson increased the number of offerings to 38, supporting more than 2,000 textbooks and used globally by more than 2.9 million students, up more than 30% from 2006." (Mickey and Meaney 2008, 14)

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