When Pearson sold the Financial Times to Nikkei in 2015, it was making a statement as well as banking a trophy price. After 58 years of ownership, the company was removing the last vestige of its history as a conglomerate and turning its back on newspapers: education was the future.
However, since the £844m sale, Pearson has lost nearly 25% of its value. First it blamed lower enrolments at some American colleges and a fall in textbook purchases in South Africa. Then there was more bad news: students were buying second-hand books on eBay and Amazon.
In 2017 Pearson was forced to cut its dividend, slash 3,000 jobs and plan £330m of savings by 2021. Shares hit a low of 568.5p in September that year.