Acquisition from Thomson Corp

PEARSON PLC
30 July 1999


FT GROUP BUYS THOMSON FINANCIAL SECURITIES MANAGEMENT FOR $150M

The Financial Times Group, part of Pearson plc, the international media
company, has enhanced its position as a leading provider of securities pricing
and other specialist information to the global financial information community
through the acquisition of Thomson Financial Securities Management, a unit of
The Thomson Corporation (Toronto, Canada) for $150m.

The acquisition will bring together two of Thomson's specialist information
businesses, Muller Data Corporation, based in the USA and the London based
Valorinform, with the Financial Times Group's Asset Management division. 
Financial Times Asset Management trades as Financial Times Information in the
UK and Interactive Data in the USA. The integration of the two businesses will
deliver substantial cost savings.

The acquisition was welcomed by Stephen Hill, Chief Executive of the FT Group,
he said  'This is great news for the FT Group as it strengthens our leading
position in this fast growing area. The combination of the Thomson businesses
with our brands and our other high quality information services puts us in an
even better position to gain a real competitive advantage.  The integration
will allow us to offer our customers an expanded and more sophisticated
service.'

Muller has specific expertise in the municipal bond market that will
complement FT Asset Management's  expertise in the corporate, government and
international fixed income markets.  Valorinform, with its emerging data
market will enhance FT Asset Management's international corporate action
services.  As a combined organisation, it will be able to better serve 
clients around the world with superior market data, customer service and
delivery.

For further information:
Benjamin Wegg-Prosser              Pearson plc              [phone]

Notes to Editors:
Financial Times Asset Management is one of the leading providers of specialist
financial information to global markets.  The business operates as Interactive
Data in North America and as Financial Times Information in Europe and Asia
Pacific.  The company is based in Bedford, Massachusetts, USA.  
Muller Data Corporation is a New York based securities information provider
specializing in data collections and internally authored evaluations of North
American fixed income securities.  Included in the assets of Muller Data
Corporation is its Asset Backed Securities Group a leading source for
comprehensive disclosure data, factor information and independent valuations
for US based Asset and Mortgage Backed Securities, ARMs, CMO/REMOC, and SBA
Securities.  Also included is its Muniview business which offers full
municipal bond descriptive information via an electronic database of over 2
million US municipal bonds.  Muller Data Corporation trades primarily in North
America.

Valorinform collects and distributes corporate action information covering all
equities, bonds and warrants listed and traded on the primary exchanges of
over fifty-five countries around the world.   Valorinform specializes in 'hard
to get' information such as that from emerging markets.

Financial Times Asset Management provides a wide range of high quality
information including pricing, dividend, corporate action and descriptive
information to trading houses, custodians and fund managers.  The company's
principal information assets include a database of 3.5 million securities,
including hard-to-value unlisted fixed income instruments.  Its databases are
used by clients to value most of the world's investment funds.

Employing 900 people in offices throughout the world, Financial Times Asset
Management is part of the Financial Times Group owned by Pearson plc, the
international media group engaged in the information, education and
entertainment markets.  Other Financial Times Group companies include the
Financial Times newspaper, Financial Times Electronic Publishing and Financial
Times Business.

The Financial Times group also consists of:
- The Financial Times Newspaper, the world's leading international business
newspaper.  Interests in Europe extend to Groupe Les Echos, France's leading
business newspaper and magazine publisher; and Recoletos, one of Spain's
leading media companies, which publishes Expansion, the leading Spanish
business and financial newspaper.  A new German language newspaper and
accompanying website are under development in partnership with Gruner + Jahr,
one of Germany's leading newspaper and magazine publishers.
- ft.com, one of the world's leading business information websites.  It
provides the very best general news, analysis, specialist company and market
information and financial data. It has over 2 million registered users
worldwide, with the majority outside the UK. 
- Financial Times Business produces specialist information on particular
industries - energy, media and telecommunications and finance - where the
group has a market leading position. 
 - FTSE International, a joint venture with the London stock exchange,
provides the
professional investment community with the leading UK indices and, together
with the
Amsterdam Stock Exchange, publishes the Eurotop family of indices. 

 - AFX News, a news agency jointly owned by the FT Group and Agence
France-Presse, is a global provider of real time financial and business news.