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Pearson sells media group for £382m but FT is NOT on the block

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By Noel Young | Correspondent

November 30, 2013 | 2 min read

Financial Times publisher Pearson, which recently put the Mergermarket Group up for sale, has found a buyer. The group is going for for £382 million to funds affiliated with the private equity firm BC Partners, the New York Times reports.

FT not for sale

Mergermarket, founded in 1999, is a publisher of financial news and business intelligence. Its brands include Debtwire, DealReporter and Wealthmonitor, said the NYT .

BC Partners advises funds totalling 12 billion euros and plans to continue Mergermarket’s international growth strategy.

“Mergermarket is a high quality company and a market leader with an attractive business model, strong growth, and loyal customers,” said Nikos Stathopoulos, managing partner at BC Partners.

The private equity firm has made several recent media investments, including Bureau van Dijk, a provider of private company information, and Springer Science+Business Media, a leading publisher of business, academic, and scientific journals.

John Fallon, Pearson’s chief executive, said Mergermarket did not fit Pearson’s strategy centered on education products.

“The transaction provides us with additional financial capacity to accelerate our push into digital learning, educational services and emerging markets,”he said.

But Pearson insists The Financial Times is not for sale despite speculation it might be sold as part of the company’s education-focused strategy.

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