Pearson, Financial Times and Economist chronology

This chronology is indicative only. There's a separate, more general communications and media timeline.

     beginnings

1724 Longman publishing founded

1725 Thomas Longman publishes first book typeset by Benjamin Franklin

1844 S Pearson founds civil engineering business

1856 Pearson provides railway construction services in UK

1863 Pearson provides canal and railway construction services in Egypt, Canada and Mexico

1889 S. Pearson & Son building Hudson tunnel in New York; railways in Spain, Mexico, Colombia and China; dams and canals in Mexico and docks in Egypt and Canada

1889 Scott Foresman publishing founded

1893 Westminster Gazette launched (merged with Daily News in 1928)

1901 launch of Daily Express

1901 Pearson enters Mexican oil business, establishes Mexican Eagle oil extraction, refining and shipping operation

1913 Prentice Hall publishing founded

     diversification

1919 Pearson establishes Whitehall Trust corporate finance and investment house

1920 Pearson buys UK provincial newspapers such as the Brighton Evening Argus and The Oxford Mail, organised as the Westminister Press

1938 Pearson's Mexican Eagle nationalised

1942 Addison-Wesley founded

1947 Longman becomes public company

1946 Penguin Australia founded

1952 Pearson invests in British Overseas Airways

1957 gains control of Financial Times (FT)

1961 Penguin Books goes public

1963 Pearson takes controlling stake in Chateau Latour winery

1968 gains control of Longman publishers

1969 Pearson goes public

1970 Addison-Wesley buys US science publisher W.A. Benjamin

1971 Pearson gains control of Penguin books

1972 Pearson merges Royal Doulton ceramics group with Allied English Potteries

1973 Prentice Hall buys Appleton-Century-Crofts

1975 Viking merges with Penguin

1977 Addison-Wesley and Cummings merge

1978 Pearson buys waxworks and theme park operator Madame Tussauds

1983 Penguin buys Frederick Warne

1985 Scott Foresman bought by Time

1985 Penguin buys Hamish Hamilton, Michael Joseph, Sphere Books, Rainbird Publishing Group and TBD Book Service from Thomson

1987 Murdoch pays £250m for 14.9% stake in Pearson (subsequently sold)

1988 Pearson buys Addison-Wesley

1988 buys French daily Les Echos

1990 Addison-Wesley buys Cuisenaire Company

1991 Pearson sells 22% Elsevier stake for £313m; Elsevier sells 8% stake in Pearson

1992 buys Ventura

1993 Pearson buys UK Thames Television

1993 buys Extel Financial for £73.5m

1993 Pearson spins off Royal Doulton into a separate company

1994 buys Mindscape for £313m

1994 Simon & Schuster buy US Macmillan Publishing after Maxwell collapse

1995 Addison-Wesley merges with Longman Publishing to create Addison Wesley Longman

1995 Economist buys Journal of Commerce and subsidiaries from Knight Ridder for US$115m

1995 Pearson buys Grundy Worldwide

1995 buys Troll Communications, sold in 1997

1996 Pearson sells Westminster Press for £305m

1996 Pearson buys Putnam Berkley publishing group from Seagram for US$350m and HarperCollins US education interests from News for US$580m

1996 Penguin takes 51% stake in Rough Guides

1997 sells Churchill Livingstone medical books for US$92m

1997 Pearson buys US producer All American Communications

1997 Pearson buys stake in UK commercial TV broadcaster Channel 5

1997 buys Resource Data International for US$25m

1997 buys Putnam Berkley for US$336m

1998 Pearson buys Viacom's Simon & Schuster education, business & professional and reference divisions for £2.9bn

1998 Pearson buys illustrated book publisher Dorling Kindersley for US$466m

     concentration

1998 Pearson sells M Tussaud's for $528m

1998 Pearson sells Mindscape games arm for US$138m after US$405m loss

1998 Pearson sells Macmillan General Reference USA to IDG Books Worldwide for £52m

1998 Pearson sells Macmillan Library Reference USA to Thomson for £53m

1998 Pearson sells Westminster Press to Newsquest Media Group (later acquired by Gannett) for £298m

1998 sells Capitol Publishing to Kluwer for US$20m

1998 Pearson sells stake in Lazard banking houses for £436m

1999 Pearson sells medical publisher Appleton & Lange to McGraw-Hill for US$46m

1999 Pearson sells law and tax publishing operations to Thomson for £70m and Master Data Center to Information Holdings for US $33m

1999 Pearson buys E Source for £11m

1999 Pearson sells Jossey-Bass to John Wiley for US$82m

2000 Pearson merges Pearson TV production holdings with Bertelsmann-controlled RTL Group

2000 sells 50% holding in AFX News to Agence France Presse

2000 Pearson sells stake in Murdoch-controlled UK statellite broadcaster BSkyB to Vivendi for around £305m

2000 Pearson buys US National Computer Systems educational services group for £1.7bn

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