Dame Scardino said it had been a
“privilege” to be part of “such a great company for a small part of its
history” Photo:
NEWSCAST
Her reign at the media group has been characterised by a shift away from the
old and a dogged pursuit of the new. By buying and selling companies she has
reshaped Pearson from a rag-bag conglomerate that included, among other things,
Madame Tussauds, part of Channel 5 and half of investment bank Lazard, to one
that its sharply focussed on content and education. She has scaled back its
reliance on print business models and the well-worn US and UK economies in
favour of fast-growing territories, digital products and educational services.
In doing so, Dame Marjorie has tripled annual sales to £5.9bn and last year
drove operating profits to a record high of £942m as the company forged into new
markets.
Pearson’s share price is nearly 90pc higher than when she started - no mean
feat for any company but particularly a media business. Many others have
travelled in the opposite direction over the same period.
But fittingly for the former rodeo rider, Dame Marjorie’s ride has not been
altogether smooth. At around the same time as she was selling Pearson’s
collection of fine wines, she pledged to double the company’s share price within
five years.
The softly-spoken former journalist started out well, tripling the company’s
value on the back of the dotcom boom. But then that dotcom bubble burst and
shareholders woke up to the fact that Pearson’s digital ventures, particularly
FT.com, were chewing up cash. Alongside successful investments were notable
flops. Even Dame Marjorie cringes when she recalled the pink FT mobile phone of
the late nineties.
Full report at The Telegraph
Full report at The Telegraph
No comments:
Post a Comment