in brief.(Pearson Inc. acquires Mergermarket)(Electronic Publishing Services Co. acquired by Outsell Inc.)(American Institute of Physics releases DocumentStore)

Byline: mark chillingworth

FT spends [pounds sterling]100m on mergers and acquisitions

Pearson, the parent company of The Financial Times, has acquired mergers and acquisitions information provider Mergermarket for [pounds sterling]101m, bolstering the FT's increasing presence online. FT group chief executive Rona Fairhead said Mergermarket data would be linked to content from the newspaper and website. The merger announcement was withdrawn within minutes of being made to the stock market, but confirmed two hours later. The "confusion" was not expected from an organisation that prides itself on financial information precision, sniffed The Times.

' www.ft.com

New age dawns as Outsell purchases Worlock's EPS

Consultancy services and market analysis for the $358bn global information industry entered a new era in August when Outsell announced its acquisition of its major competitor in Europe, London-based Electronic Publishing Services (EPS). The merger may see the EPS name disappear in the near future, but David Worlock will remain as chief research fellow in the merged organisation. The terms of the deal between the two privately held companies were not disclosed. The last filed accounts for EPS at Companies House, for the year 2005, showed profits of [pounds sterling]84,699 on an income of [pounds sterling]674,684, down from [pounds sterling]100,090 and [pounds sterling]686,948 respectively the year before. San Francisco-based Outsell was co-founded by its current CEO Anthea Stratigos and current chief sales officer Greg Chagaris in 1994. EPS's 14 staff will be merged with Outsell's to ...