MergerID Achieves Breakthrough as M&A Matching Platform Attracts More Than 1,000 Sell-Side Mandates

Middle-Market Businesses With Aggregate Revenues of $27.3 Billion Currently Available

LONDON, April 26, 2011 - MergerID today announced it has passed a major development milestone
after attracting 1,040 sell-side mandates, with aggregate revenues of $27.3
billion, on the M&A matching platform.

The London-based company, operated by The Mergermarket Group - a
subsidiary of Pearson, the education, media and publishing group - also
reported that almost 4,000 projects on both the buy and sell side are
presently live on the world's leading online platform of which 1,743 are
located in the EMEA region, 1,225 in the Americas and 840 in Asia.

Jonathan Goor, MergerID Managing Director, said: "The rapid acceptance
and growth of MergerID reflects our close consultation with and
responsiveness to online members, both at the design stage and ongoing
development of the platform. Our unique vetting procedures combined with
confidentiality and control features have encouraged members to expand their
dealings with a trusted global community of credible counterparties."

The business, launched in September 2009, facilitates connections between
decision-makers on the buy and sell sides, irrespective of geography, through
the use of powerful online matching technology in a secure and vetted
environment.

MergerID has been active across the entire range of industrial and
service sectors. The live platform has proved particularly powerful in new
growth areas of the economy such as green technologies, characterised by many
new potential market entrants but relatively few M&A deals on record.

Daniel Confino, MergerID founder, said: "MergerID shrinks the distance,
removes the barriers, and helps close the knowledge-gap between the various
parties in the M&A market. By connecting at the decision-maker level,
MergerID makes practical the inclusion, even in a tight timetable, of
credible but less obvious, previously unknown and surprising counterparties.
By the same token, buyers can ensure greater deal flow from improved
visibility and timely inclusion via MergerID".

Within 20 months of its launch, MergerID has secured a subscription base
of more than 1,700 firms drawn from the corporate, private equity, family
office and business advisory community. Today, over 11,000 live matched
postings are connecting buyers and sellers globally.

MergerID helps decision makers on the buy and sell sides to make
introductory contact, leading to the exchange of business details and
thereafter leaves the parties to pursue deals in the usual way. It plays no
part in transaction management or the negotiation process.

The advent of MergerID has played well to the rapidly growing demand from
new entrants to the M&A market globally, including BRIC countries, which have
previously been overlooked or proved hard to contact at the right level by
conventional means.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

MergerID provides a secure online environment, for principals and
professionals, to post and view M&A opportunities. MergerID is part of the
Mergermarket Group, a division of the Financial Times Group, publisher of the
Financial Times newspaper, FT.com and is a division of Pearson plc, the
international education, publishing and media group.

For more information, contact: MergerID:Flora Wilke, PR Manager EMEA,
Email: flora.wilke at mergermarket.com, Telephone: +44(0)20-7059-6348; StockWell
Group: Tim Burt/Borbala Nagy, Telephone: +44(0)20-3370-0013