Who Owns Pearson English?

The heritage of Pearson English traces to Longman, one of the world's oldest publishing houses, founded in London in 1724 by Thomas Longman. Longman built a distinguished catalog across academic and educational publishing over more than two centuries, and by the 20th century had become one of the leading publishers of English language teaching materials globally.

Pearson plc acquired Longman in 1968 as part of its strategy to build a major educational publishing business. Under Pearson ownership, Longman's English language teaching catalog expanded significantly, producing widely used course series for learners at all levels across the British and international ELT markets. Longman titles such as the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English became reference standards in English language education worldwide.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Pearson made a series of acquisitions that expanded its English language teaching portfolio. The acquisition of Simon and Schuster's education division in 1998 brought additional ELT assets, and Pearson's purchase of National Education Training Group and other companies added digital learning capabilities.

In the 2000s, Pearson began consolidating its various English language teaching brands and imprints under a more unified commercial identity. The Pearson English brand emerged as the umbrella under which Pearson's ELT products were marketed, drawing on the Longman heritage while presenting a contemporary, digitally oriented brand identity.

In 2015, Pearson sold the Financial Times to Nikkei for approximately £844 million and divested its stake in The Economist Group, completing a strategic pivot to focus entirely on education. This refocusing intensified investment in Pearson's core education businesses, including English language learning.

In 2022, Pearson acquired Mondly, a language learning app with over 100 million users across 41 languages, for approximately $33 million. Mondly was integrated into Pearson English, significantly expanding the brand's digital consumer reach and positioning it to compete in the app-based language learning market alongside Duolingo and Babbel.

By 2024, Pearson English encompassed a broad portfolio including the Longman ELT catalog, the Global Scale of English (GSE) assessment framework, the Pearson Test of English (PTE) academic qualification, and the Mondly digital learning platform. The brand serves learners across institutional, corporate, and consumer channels globally.