Pearson shares up on speculation that Financial Times will be sold

Geoff Foster of the Daily Mail in England reports Thursday that Pearson Plc’s shares are trading higher amid speculation that the company will sell The Financial Times.

Foster wrote, “As shares in the media giant advanced strongly to 839p before closing 24½p higher at 824½p, dealers heard a jackanory that Dame Marjorie Scardino plans to commemorate her 60th birthday next Thursday with confirmation that the (now) profitable Financial Times and its website is to be put up for sale at around £650m.

“Management buy-out and KKR break-up rumours also did the rounds, but buyers preferred to focus on the possibility of the City bible at last being offloaded. It returned to a £2m profit in 2005 after a reduction in costs and following a more benign advertising market helped it wipe out a loss of £9m incurred in 2004.

“Scardino has been at Pearson for 10 years and fund managers expect a corporate restructuring soon. She recently raised £286m from the sale of Pearson’s government arm which handles applications from US students for financial aid. If the FT was sold, analysts say it would boost earnings by 7% and enable Scardino to continue building a leading position in the US education business.”

Read more here.

In March 2002 she said the FT will be sold ‘over my dead body’. Now considered to be well past her sell-by date, shareholders are ready to force her hand.