Good morning: Only a couple of years ago one newspaper put the odds of John Fallon, the chief executive of Pearson, being sacked at 11-4. The odds appeared generous following a massive profit warning, a dividend cut and bitter pay row. Shareholders, it seemed, had little faith that Mr Fallon was the right man to put the textbooks and educational software company back on track. Many City analysts remain bearish, with ten “sell” recommendations, yet Mr Fallon appears to have proved the doubters wrong: last year Pearson was the fourth best performing stock in the FTSE 100, with the shares rising 28 per cent. Updating investors this morning in advance of full-year results next month, Pearson says that it expects operating profit over the financial…

Source: The Times January 16, 2019 09:00 UTC