Pearson plc
British multinational publishing and education company
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| January 8 2024 | Omar Abbosh, previously president of Microsoft's Industry Solutions business, succeeded Andy Bird as Pearson CEO. |
| September 2023 | CEO Andy Bird announced his impending retirement. |
| 2022 | Pearson announced plans to sell digital textbooks as NFTs to profit from secondhand sales. |
| April 2022 | Pearson acquired ClutchPrep, renaming it Channels and adding it to the Pearson website. |
| April 2022 | Pearson acquired the online language learning platform Mondly. |
| April 2022 | Pearson acquired two companies: the online language learning platform Mondly, and ClutchPrep (renamed Channels and added to the Pearson website). |
| March 2022 | Pearson completes the sale of its K-12 American education curriculum business, further streamlining its focus on digital learning solutions. |
| February 2022 | The company completed its digital transformation strategy by selling its last print textbook business, further solidifying its commitment to digital education platforms. |
| December 2021 | Pearson announced the appointment of Omid Kordestani as chairman of the board of directors, effective March 2022. |
| July 2021 | Pearson sold its K-12 courseware business in the United States to Nexus Capital Management, marking a significant transformation of its educational publishing operations. |
| July 2021 | Pearson announces a strategic transformation, focusing entirely on digital educational platforms and selling off its remaining print education businesses to become a pure digital education company. |
| October 19 2020 | Andy Bird succeeded John Fallon as CEO of Pearson. |
| 2019 | Cogmed was transferred back to its original founders. |
| 2019 | Pearson Education began phasing out hard-copy textbooks in favor of digital textbooks, which are more cost-effective and easier to update. |
| 2019 | Pearson sold its remaining 25% stake in Penguin Random House to Bertelsmann. |
| 2019 | Pearson sold its US K-12 courseware business to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management, which rebranded it as Savvas Learning Company. |
| 2019 | Pearson sold its US K-12 courseware business to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management, which rebranded it as Savvas Learning Company. The company also sold its remaining 25% stake in Penguin Random House to Bertelsmann. |
| July 2019 | Pearson sells Financial Times to Nikkei for £844 million, continuing its strategic shift away from traditional media businesses towards digital education services. |
| 2017 | More than six out of ten Pearson shareholders voted against the chief executive's pay package of £1.5 million after the company made a record loss. |
| August 2017 | Pearson sold its language-training subsidiary Global Education to Chinese company Pu-Xin Education. |
| August 2017 | Pearson announced a plan to cut 3,000 staff to save £300 million annually. |
| July 2017 | Pearson agreed to reduce its holding in Penguin Random House to 25% by selling a 22% stake to Bertelsmann. |
| July 2017 | Pearson sold its Tutor Vista and Edurite lines of business to India-based education technology company, Byju's. The company also agreed to reduce its holding in Penguin Random House to 25% by selling a 22% stake to Bertelsmann. |
| 2016 | Pearson acquired StatCrunch, a statistical analysis tool created by Webster West in 1997, after being its primary distributor for several years. |
| 2016 | The company continues its strategic transformation by selling The Economist Group stake, further emphasizing its commitment to educational technology and services. |
| 2016 | Pearson announced a major restructuring to focus more intensively on digital educational services and content. |
| January 2016 | Pearson plc rebranded to focus solely on education, adopting a new logo (the interrobang) to symbolize excitement and curiosity in learning. |
| 2015 | Pearson sold its Family Education Network and Poptropica to London-based investment group Sandbox Partners. |
| 2015 | Pearson sold PowerSchool to Vista Equity Partners for $350 million cash. |
| 2015 | Pearson sold its financial news publications Financial Times and The Economist. |
| 2015 | Pearson announces a major restructuring plan to focus more intensively on digital educational content and services. |
| August 2015 | Pearson sold its 50% stake in The Economist to the Agnelli family. |
| July 2015 | Pearson agreed to sell the FT Group, including the Financial Times, to Japanese media group Nikkei for £844 million. |
| 2014 | PowerSchool generated $97 million in revenue and $20 million in operating income for Pearson. |
| December 31 2014 | Pearson Education closed its U.S. headquarters in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. |
| July 2014 | Pearson announced a significant workforce reduction, cutting 4,000 jobs, which represented 10% of the company's total workforce. |
| 2013 | Marjorie Scardino's tenure as CEO of Pearson plc ends after 16 years of leadership. |
| May 2013 | Pearson announced a restructuring plan to invest in digital learning and emerging markets, reorganizing around three global business lines: School, Higher Education, and Professional. |
| February 2013 | Following government changes to apprenticeship funding rules, Pearson sold its Pearson in Practice vocational training business to West Nottinghamshire College. |
| October 2012 | Pearson entered into talks with Bertelsmann about merging Penguin Group and Random House to create the world's largest consumer book publisher. |
| May 2012 | Pearson acquired GlobalEnglish Corporation, an American Business English software and solutions company, in an all-cash transaction. |
| 2011 | Pearson Education is renamed to simply 'Pearson'. |
| July 2011 | Pearson announced the creation of Pearson College, a British degree provider based in London. The company also acquired Connections Education and sold its 50% stake in FTSE International Limited to the London Stock Exchange for £450 million. Additionally, Pearson increased its stake in TutorVista to 76%. |
| 2010 | Pearson purchased Cogmed, a brain fitness and working memory training program originally founded by Swedish researcher Torkel Klingberg in 1999. |
| 2010 | Pearson acquired the adult English training service Wall Street Institute and the school learning systems division of Sistema Educacional Brasileiro (SEB). Also sold its 61% stake in Interactive Data to investment funds managed by Silver Lake Partners and Warburg Pincus. |
| June 2010 | Pearson plc received notification that the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), founded by Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, acquired 24.4 million shares in the company via Euroclear, representing a 3.27% holding worth approximately £280 million. |
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