I'm not sure if there is much interest for these on here - but I've been following them this year. They have had a rapid climb recently - is it time to take profits?

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Pearson Fundamentals (PSON)

Pearson target price raised to 940p from 840p at UBS, buy rating maintained

INTERVIEW: Pearson Focused On Growing International Education - CFO

Trading Statement

Pearson to beat consensus with 10% EPS growth

Pearson, Nokia Form Wireless Educational Venture In China


LONDON (Dow Jones)
Publisher Pearson PLC (PSON.LN) and Nokia Corp. (NOK), the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said Monday they have set up a wireless education joint venture in China, aimed at attracting people who are studying and learning English.

The two companies hope the joint venture, Beijing Mobiledu Technologies, will accelerate the growth of mobile phone-delivered education service Mobiledu, which has been developed by Finland's Nokia.

Launched in China in 2007, Mobiledu is a mobile service which provides English-language learning materials and other educational content, from a variety of content providers, directly to mobile phones. Customers can access the content through an application preloaded on new Nokia handsets, or by visiting the service's mobile Web site and most other wireless application protocol, or WAP, portals in China.

Since its launch, Mobiledu has attracted 20 million subscribers in China, with 1.5 million people actively using the service each month. Mobiledu will continue to be delivered to customers in China through a range of channels, including Nokia's Ovi Store.

The new Beijing-based joint venture company will be headed by Angela Long, formerly head of Mobiledu at Nokia, and will commence operations immediately.

John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson's international Education business, said it is a "great opportunity to combine Pearson's English language learning and wider educational services with the mobile technology capabilities of Nokia to meet this demand and help a larger number of people achieve their aspirations."

Pearson Buys Medley Global Advisors

LONDON (Dow Jones)
Pearson PLC (PSON.LN), an education and information company, announced Wednesday the acquisition of Medley Global Advisors LLC (MGA), a premier provider of macro policy intelligence to the world's top investment banks, hedge funds and asset managers.

MAIN FACTS:

-No financial details disclosed

-MGA had estimated gross assets of $7.3 million at the year end.

-The acquisition strengthens the FT's position as a global leader in premium financial information.

-Medley Global Advisors provides in-depth research and analysis through email and verbal consultations to help clients understand and anticipate the major policy events driving interest rate, currency and energy markets.

-The acquisition will enhance the FT's portfolio of services geared towards major global financial institutions and asset managers, including FTfm, its global fund management supplement, and Money-Media, the market leader in online news and commentary for the fund management sector.

Final results.

Sales up 4% at constant exchange rates to 5.6bn; adjusted operating profit up 4% to 858m; underlying sales and profit growth of 2%*;

Headline growth of 13% in adjusted EPS to 65.4p and 15% in operating cash flow to 913m, benefiting from business performance and stronger US dollar;

Education sales up 7% and profits up 14% with significant market share gains, extending leading position in global learning market;

FT Group and Penguin achieve good competitive performances and healthy margins in tough markets;

Digital products and services generate a record 1.7bn of sales, now 31% of Pearson;

Sustained investment of approximately 500m in new education programmes and authors advances;

Dividend raised 5%; another year of underlying profit growth expected in 2010.

Annual Financial Report

Trading Statement.

All parts of the company have made a good start to 2010. We are trading in line with the expectations set out in our full-year results announcement on March 1, and we continue to expect another year of underlying profit growth.

We generated 1.08bn in revenues in the first quarter, an increase of 7% in headline terms and 12% at constant currencies. The first quarter is always a very light trading period for Pearson owing to the seasonal phasing of our book publishing businesses, and we expect these growth rates to moderate as we go through the year.

Pearson to sell 61% Stake in Interactive Data for $33.86 per share:
total proceeds to Pearson of $2billion

Interactive Data Corporation, a leading provider of financial market data, analytics and solutions, is today announcing that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by investment funds managed by Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus in a transaction with a total value of $3.4 billion. Pearson, which owns approximately 61% of Interactive Data, has executed a written consent providing approval as a shareholder for the transaction.

The agreement was unanimously approved by the Interactive Data board of directors taking into consideration the recommendation of the Special Committee composed solely of the company's four independent directors. The Special Committee was formed as part of the review of strategic alternatives conducted by Interactive Data's board of directors.

Melorio agrees 99m Pearson offer
Business Financial Newswire
Melorio plc, the AIM-listed vocational training company, have agreed terms of a recommended cash offer from education and information giant, Pearson plc.

The offer will be 225p in cash for each Melorio share and values the company at approximately 99.3m.

The offer price represents a premium of 31.2% to the closing price of 171.5p per Melorio share and 56.9% to the average closing price over the three months to 17 May, 2010.

Pearson believes that the addition of Melorio will support their strategy of building a strong position in the growing global market for vocational learning.

The directors of Melorio intend to unaninmously recommend that shareholders accept the offer.

Interim Results.

STRONG GROWTH IN ALL BUSINESSES; FULL YEAR OUTLOOK UPGRADED

Strong organic growth. Sales up 9% at constant exchange rates with rapid growth in digital services.

All businesses performing well.First-half operating profits doubled at Education, the FT Group and Penguin with good underlying progress also helped by phasing. Adjusted continuing operating profits up 79% to 178m; adjusted EPS of 16.6p (7.9p in 2009).

Interim dividend raised by 7% to 13.0p.

Shift to services and developing economies accelerating. Sale of stake in Interactive Data expected to close in the next few weeks. Process of reinvestment under way with acquisitions of Melorio in vocational training and SEB's sistemas in Brazil.

Full year outlook upgraded. Market conditions remain uncertain and growth is still expected to slow in the second half on tougher comparables. Even so, Pearson expects to achieve adjusted earnings of approximately 70p per share for the full year (65.4p in 2009), even after earnings impact from sale of Interactive Data.

Pearson To Establish New School Services Business In UK

Today : Monday 26 July 2010
Publisher Pearson PLC (PSON.LN) said Monday it will set up a new business to offer services to U.K. schools, after reporting strong first-half results.

Pearson said the new business will offer services to help schools with teaching, planning and administration.

"Historically, we've offered resources and services that support individual teachers but are increasingly being asked for whole school solutions," Rod Bristow, president of Pearson's U.K. operations, said in a statement. "This might include not only helping with the administration, accounting and school management, but also providing an entire framework for school operations."

The business will be run by Anders Hultin, who will join in September as managing director of school improvement. He co-founded the Kunskapsskolan chain of independent schools in Sweden and was its chief executive from 1999 to 2007.

Further details about the business will be released when Hultin joins the group, a Pearson spokesman said.

Pearson, which also publishes the Financial Times newspaper and Penguin books, earlier Monday posted a sharp jump in adjusted operating profit from continuing operations--one of the figures tracked by U.K. analysts--to GBP178 million for the six months ended June 30.

Pearson to acquire Wall Street Institute

TIDMPSON

RNS Number : 1327Q
Pearson PLC
29 July 2010

Pearson to acquire Wall Street Institute:
Acquisition extends Pearson's position as world leader in English language
teaching

Pearson, the education and information company, is today announcing the
acquisition of Wall Street Institute from an affiliate of the The Carlyle Group
and Citi Private Equity for $92m in cash.

Wall Street Institute (WSI) provides premium spoken English training for adults
through a proprietary learning model combining web-based content, class-based
instruction and digital and printed learning materials.

WSI currently has approximately 340 franchised learning centres in 25
territories across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Its major
markets currently include France, Italy, Turkey, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia,
Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. WSI supports its franchisees through an
international management infrastructure made up of approximately 50 employees
across the Americas and Europe. WSI also directly operates a small number of
learning centres, primarily in Germany, as flagship centres for testing new
products and sharing best practice across the franchise network.

WSI earned revenues of approximately $60m in 2009. Pearson expects the
acquisition to be earnings neutral in 2011 as it invests to expand the business
in high growth markets, and to enhance adjusted EPS and generate a return above
Pearson's cost of capital from 2012.

PEARSON COMPLETES SALE OF 61% STAKE IN INTERACTIVE DATA

Pearson, the education and information company, has completed the sale of its
61% stake in Interactive Data to investment funds managed by Silver Lake and
Warburg Pincus. The terms of the transaction are in line with the agreement
announced on 4 May 2010.

Interactive Data shareholders will receive $33.86 in cash for each share of
Interactive Data stock they own. The total cash consideration to Pearson is
approximately $2bn before tax.

Rona Fairhead, chief executive of the Financial Times Group, said:
"Interactive Data has been a valued part of the FT Group and Pearson for many
years and has become a world leader in its field. That's the result of the
dedication and talent of its remarkable group of people, and we wish them every
success with their new owners."

PEARSON ACQUIRES THE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS LTD.; EXTENDS LEADERSHIP IN STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, today announced the acquisition of The Administrative Assistants Ltd. (aal), a provider of student information systems in the worldwide K-12 school market.

Student information systems provide administrators, parents, teachers and students with information on grades, homework, attendance, reporting and other elements vital to school performance and personalised learning.

Pearson is the leader in the SIS market, providing support to about 11 million students through the PowerSchool and Chancery SMS systems, and the acquisition of aal expands Pearson's SIS reach to more than 15 million students globally.

Based in Burlington, Ontario, aal provides the Web-based system known as eSIS which has been implemented in locations ranging from North Carolina in the U.S. to Abu Dhabi in the Gulf, and aal's products will provide increased international market opportunities for Pearson in the K-12 market. Gross assets of aal are C$13m and 2010 revenues for the year ending September 30 were C$14m.

Trading Statement.

PEARSON TRADING STATEMENT


RAISING GUIDANCE FOR 2010;

ADJUSTED EARNINGS PER SHARE EXPECTED TO GROW APPROXIMATELY 16%;

2011 EXPECTED TO BE ANOTHER GOOD YEAR

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, is today providing its regular January trading update. We will report preliminary results for 2010 on 28 February 2011.

All of Pearson's major businesses sustained their strong trading momentum throughout 2010. We will report healthy sales growth and further margin improvement, fuelled by our consistent investment in the global learning industry, in digital services and in developing economies.

As a result, we now expect to report continuing operating profits for 2010 of approximately 850m, a headline increase of approximately 20% (compared with 710m in 2009, excluding Interactive Data, which was sold in July 2010, from both years). We expect to report adjusted earnings of approximately 76p per share, an increase of approximately 16% on 65.4p in 2009, and ahead of our previous guidance of approximately 72p.

Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "For the third successive year, our growth is vigorous even though market conditions have been anaemic. That confirms the soundness of our strategy and the increasing strength of our market positions. We are on the right road and set out on 2011 with confidence that we will have another good year."

Our North American education business continues to achieve market share gains and significant growth in digital learning and will report good sales growth and margin improvement. We have benefited once again from healthy demand and our consistent industry-leading performance in higher education, though the continued pressure on state budgets has constrained our school publishing and testing businesses.

In International education, we posted a strong fourth quarter. Developing markets, digital learning, assessment and English Language Teaching were all strong, while developed markets and school publishing remained subdued. We are successfully integrating recent bolt-on acquisitions in China, Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria. On 18 January 2011, we announced that we had taken a controlling stake in TutorVista, expanding our presence into global online tutoring and the school market in India.

Our professional education business remained steady in the fourth quarter, with good growth in Professional Testing and digital publishing once again offsetting challenging conditions in the physical book market. On 11 January 2011, we announced a 12-year extension of our relationship with the Graduate Management Admission Council to administer the Graduate Management Admission Test.

The Financial Times Group finished the year strongly and we will report substantial profit growth (excluding Interactive Data which was sold in July 2010). Advertising markets continued to improve and our subscription-based revenues remained resilient.

Penguin continues to benefit from its leadership in the rapidly-expanding market for digital reading and has posted a very good competitive performance. We performed strongly in our key trading season and will report record results despite tough conditions in the physical book retail market.

For the full year, we continue to expect our total interest charge to adjusted earnings to be approximately 90m. We now expect our effective tax rate to be around the low end of our previous guidance of 25-27%.


ENDS

Market outlook: HSBC, Pearson, ITV, GKN

http://www.whatinvestment.co.uk/trading/markets/news/1605403/market-outlook-hsbc-pearson-itv-gkn.thtml

Pearson plc said it has told the Libyan Investment Authority that its shares in the company are frozen. The group announced last June that the LIA had acquired 24.4m shares and on further investigation believed it had acquired an additional 2.1m, taking its stake to 3.27%. Having taken legal advice regarding its obligations, Pearson considered the shares were subject to UN and UK sanctions and therefore effectively frozen. Pearson will not register any transfer or pay any dividend in respect of the shares until further notice.

Pearson acquisition cleared by OFT

The Office of Fair Trading has decided not to refer the proposed acquisition by Pearson of Education Development International to the Competition Commission.

Interim Results.

PEARSON 2011 INTERIM RESULTS (unaudited)



Pearson sales up 6% to 2.4bn and profits up 20% to 208m*

Education sales up 9% and profits up 31%:

o Good sales growth in International (up 26%) and Professional (up 35%).

o In North America, sales 3% lower with tough first-half comparables; full-year growth expected with easing H2 comparables and further market share gains.

FT Group sales up 7% and profits up 10%, enhanced by digital subscriptions.

Penguin sales 4% lower (underlying sales level); profits sustained with rapid digital growth.



Strong growth in digital, developing markets and newly-acquired businesses

Education digital platform and service registrations up 15%; FT.com subscriptions up more than 30%; Penguin ebook revenues up almost 130%.

Sales up approximately 40% in developing markets (headline growth).

Strong growth from recent acquisitions including Wall Street Institute, SEB (Brazil), TutorVista, CTI (South Africa) and Melorio (now known as Pearson in Practice).



Full year outlook upgraded

Pearson expects sales and margin growth for the full year, based on good trading momentum - especially in digital businesses and developing markets - and easing comparatives.

Pearson expects to achieve adjusted EPS of approximately 80p for the full year (2010: 77.5p). This guidance is struck at current exchange rates (1: $1.63).



Interim dividend raised by 8% to 14.0p.



Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "Though market conditions are anything but easy, we are sufficiently encouraged by our start to the year to raise both our guidance and our dividend. Structural changes in our industries are gathering pace, but we are confident that we have the strategy, the competitive positions, the investment capacity and the culture to sustain our strong record of performance."