LONDON â€" Funds affiliated with the private-equity firm BC Partners have reached an agreement to acquire Mergermarket Group from the British publisher Pearson for 382 million pounds, or about $622.7 million.
Pearson, the publisher of The Financial Times, put Mergermarket up for sale earlier this year.
Mergermarket, founded in 1999, is a publisher of financial news and business intelligence under a variety of brands, including Debtwire, DealReporter and Wealthmonitor.
BC Partners said it plans to continue Mergermarket’s international growth strategy. BC Partners advises funds with 12 billion euros, or about $16.3 billion, in assets under management.
“Mergermarket is a high quality company and a market leader with an attractive business model, strong growth, and loyal customers,†said Nikos Stathopoulos, managing partner at BC Partners.
The private-equity firm has made several recent investments in the media sector, including Bureau van Dijk, a provider of private company information, and Springer Science+Business Media, a leading publisher of business, academic, and scientific journals.
John Fallon, Pearson’s chief executive, said Mergermarket didn’t fit Pearson’s going-forward strategy centered on education products.
“The transaction provides us with additional financial capacity to accelerate our push into digital learning, educational services and emerging markets.â€
Pearson has said The Financial Times is not for sale despite speculation it might be sold as part of the company’s education-focused strategy.
