gamesinvestor
05 Aug 2017
Re: Dividend Slashed number - wonderful summary m8, at least up to the point 17.After 17, it's all fantasy and in all likelihood the complete opposite will occur.Not for Pearson mind, they will keep declining until they appoint someone with a brain to run it.Unlikely in the sense that the vast majority on the closed loop pay and appointments body are living dead and will just keep milking the FTSE100 system.As for the EU -- it's already dead.the UK? -- It has a chance if it shxxts half the negative remainers and the rest of the politicians grow a pair and get on with the job.Games
numberbiter
05 Aug 2017
Re: Dividend Slashed Since Fallon became CEO, 10,000 (yes, ten thousand) jobs will have been axed, once the latest round of redundancies (3,000) are complete. The strategy is consistent
1) Invest in declining growth businesses.(2) Banks point out that the company is leaking cash(3) Sell viable business to reduce debt.(4) Having come down from sale, debt goes back up again.(5) Reassure City that everything is OK. Initiate round of redundancies.(6) Debt increases again because of redundancies - banks unhappy.(7) Sell another business to reduce debt.(8) Repeat (4) to (7)(9) invest more in failing business(10) Slash dividend(11) Hope shareholders won't notice proposed bonuses for directors.(12) Shareholders do notice, axe more jobs(13) Note that 25% of workforce now been axed.The future14) Maintain strategy of reducing size of business.(15) Hold board meeting to discover why debt is still increasing (16) Appoint consultants to work out what has gone wrong.(17) Consultants report they have sold viable and growing businesses and invested in duff ones.(18) The US conclude a trade deal with the EU, which means that all European trade with the US must have an EU licence. Pearson's US business is dead,(19) The banks call in administrators and the business is wound up.(20) Outgoing CEO says his strategy was perfect, but Brexit has ruined the business, We are now in the late summer of 2020.(21) Fruit prices in the UK increase by a factor of ten as a ever declining pound forces import costs up and there is no one available to pick British produced fruit.(22) The NHS cannot function because foreign nurses cannot get a visa and British born people cannot afford the training costs compared to the poor salaries on offer.(23) MP's award themselves a 15% increase, while telling public sector workers they must accept a 15% cut.(24) The National Debt hits £3 trillion.(25) FTSE 100 falls below 4,000 as businesses fail and unemployment is trebled.(26) All benefits are scrapped and the workhouse is re-introduced(27) England, Scotland and Wales are in a deep recession, but Northern Ireland is booming having joined the Irish Republic and regained European citizenship.2022 arrives and the new Labour government (not led by Corbyn) begs the EU to let us back in. France says non.2025 France relents and we rejoin the EU. As a condition of re-entry the House of Cimmons and House of Lords are scrapped. Regional parliaments are set up in London, Cardiff and Glasgow. There is no national government, but we have 12 seats in the EU parliament in Berlin.2040. The Bank of England calculates that the vote to leave the EU cost the country £5 trillion.
gamesinvestor
04 Aug 2017
Dividend Slashed Dividend cut by 72% -- ouch!Education publisher Pearson said it was slashing its interim dividend by 72% as it kicked off a restructuring programme that will involve cutting 3,000 jobs. Underlying sales edged up to £2bn from £1.9bn, while adjusted operating profit came in at £107m compared to £15m in the first half of 2016, reflecting savings from the 2016 restructuring programme, a benefit from phasing and the strength of the US dollar versus the pound, offset by cost inflation and other operational factors. The company cut its dividend per share to 5p from 18p.The CEO? - he's still there !!Games
II Editor
28 Jul 2017
NEW ARTICLE: The week ahead: RBS, BP, Pearson "After Lloyds' second-quarter update this week, Royal Bank of Scotland follows Friday, with Pearson following on a busy end to the first few days of August.Monday 31 JulyTrading StatementsKeller, Fidessa, Arix Bioscience, Senior, Coats, ..."[link]
numberbiter
15 Jul 2017
Re: PPick up a Penguin LK. I agree with you; I was being polite to 'analysts' I don't know why, it is not like me?
LK Hyman
12 Jul 2017
Re: PPick up a Penguin Biter,"What amazes me is that what has been going on has been known for months, yet it seems 'analysts' have only just worked it out!"Months? Years, m8! I informed the world about Pearson on this board on [checks] 24 July 2015.LKH on the flybridge they laughed when I sat down at the piano ... but when I started to play ...
numberbiter
12 Jul 2017
Re: PPick up a Penguin I suggested selling this share at 745p, pointing out that they were selling profitable businesses to prop up their miserable on-line publishing business. I would still sell at 623p as debt will increase again (after reducing because of the sale) when they invest heavily in something with no future. Eventually, they will have nothing on value left to sell and the banks will call the debt in. The end is less than three years away.What amazes me is that what has been going on has been known for months, yet it seems 'analysts' have only just worked it out!
LK Hyman
11 Jul 2017
Re: PPick up a Penguin Games,"It's [sic, recte Its] online edumacation system isn't going to hack it like the hard material position it once commanded."Y'know, m8, Pearson is beginning to resemble another munter from yesteryear ... I'm talking about the "boxed set of The Last of the Summer Wine wonder" that was HMV. It stuck to flogging T shirts of Justin Beaver and Betamax tapes long after the world had gone digital. And paid the price.It looks as if Mr Market isn't that impressed by Fallon's latest initiative and fears that the wonga from Penguin will go up in smoke.Fallon? Fall on sword more like, as someone far cleverer than I observed some time ago.LKH on the flybridge Jonathan Guthrie will be pleased
gamesinvestor
11 Jul 2017
Re: PPick up a Penguin "I don't know much about the company in-depth."Ox - I wouldn't worry your heed about it m8 -- sooner or later there will be precious little depth to need to know much about.It's online edumacation system isn't going to hack it like the hard material position it once commanded. One would think it would, with the potential for lower costs and all that, but like the music industry this is getting hammered.The open source activities are pretty serious and it's taking all the margin out of the business.Could be wildly wrong, but I'd not bet against myself at this time.Games
Oxtrader
11 Jul 2017
Re: PPick up a Penguin Just came to post this myself! I'm not a holder of Pearson but I now do re-call a good few years of Pearson making the headlines of "Pearson sells ... X".I don't know much about the company in-depth. However it would seem to me that the directors are often using the easy-way-out card to fix short term problems.
LK Hyman
11 Jul 2017
Re: I'm out! Games,"That says to me that Mr Market is not impressed by Pearson's ability to deploy well the £844m which they will receive in cash from Nikkei."I wonder if they'll do any better with the cash from Bertelsman?This is a munter.LKH on the flybridge delivers verdict
gamesinvestor
11 Jul 2017
PPick up a Penguin """Publishing house Pearson said it was selling a 22% stake in Penguin Random House to Bertelsmann and recapitalising the business, generating total net proceeds of about $1bn (£776m) with £300m ($386m) being returned to shareholders."""Won't be much else left to sell soon. Just the diluted online education services left I believe.Games
LK Hyman
16 Jun 2017
Nikkei shows Pearson the way Today's FT contains a considerable expansion of the number of companies listed on the main market share service page. Within my own shrunken wad, Johnson Matthey, Diageo, AstraZeneca, SSE yadda yadda (to name but a few) are making a welcome reappearance and are thereby enabling a quick intrasectoral comparison of the basic valuation ratios to be made by those who still find mental arithmetic a useful attribute.The gradual hollowing out of the share service page was part of the reason I dumped all my Pearson shares while Pearson still owned the FT. The big bonobos clearly were not paying any attention to this (admittedly small) stream of income.I remain disappointed that Pearson sold the FT. The quality of the rump of Pearson's earnings seems to be declining so there is no chance that I will buy their shares again any time soon.LKH on the flybridge
numberbiter
07 May 2017
Re: Latest statement Hardboy, a visit to Pearson's recent history reveals it sells valuable assets to reduce its debts, then debt goes back up again because it is left with the dross. If it had kept the Financial Times and had no plans to sell Pengiun, but instead had sold its poor performing US education business then it would be riding high,We are told that senior directors have bought shares with the post tax bonuses they received, allegedly confirming confidence in the business in the process. I apologise for being cynical, but if they re-mortgage their homes and buy up more shares then I might believe them.I would not buy this share with my own money, but if some kind poster on this BB is happy to donate £1.000 (cheque payable to Numberbiter, please) then I would be happy to buy Peasrson shares with this money, I would, after all, end up with approx £250 for nothing,
Hardboy
05 May 2017
Re: Latest statement "The biggest worry for this share is the huge amount of debt and how it stubbornly refuses to come down."The sale of Penguin will bring it down a bit.
