Pearson is set to raise $US1 billion ($1.31 billion) from the sale of a 22 per cent stake in book publisher Penguin Random House to majority owner Bertelsmann, in the British group's latest bid to rebuild following a string of profit warnings.
Hit by a sharp downturn in its biggest markets, Pearson has sold off some of its best-known assets in recent years including the Financial Times to Japan's Nikkei for £844 million ($1.42 billion) two years ago, and its final 50-per cent stake in the Economist to the Agnelli family for £469 million in August 2015.
