London-based Pearson Plc has acquired Mergermarket, a company that specialized in providing data on mergers and acquisitions, in an attempt to improve the data being offered to subscribers of its Financial Times newspaper, according to a Reuters story.
The Reuters story stated, “Mergermarket’s flagship product combines data about corporate mergers and acquisitions from around the world with news gathered by 160 journalists in 31 countries. It mainly sells the information to investment banks and law firms.
“The closely held company was founded in 2000 and does not disclose financial information. London-based Pearson, which generates most of its profit from publishing educational materials, said it expects the deal to add to its earnings per share in 2007, the first full year after the purchase.
“‘We see opportunities to connect mergermarket and the FT Group, from the Financial Times and FT.com to our specialist financial magazines and Interactive Data Corp. ,’ FT Group Chief Executive Rona Fairhead said.
Read more here. BusinessWeek parent McGraw-Hill was apparently also interested in acquiring Mergermarket.
