FT Group to Take Major Stake in Marketwatch.com

Pearson PLC
15 November 1999


PEARSON AND DATA BROADCASTING TO CREATE WORLD LEADING SPECIALIST FINANCIAL
INFORMATION BUSINESS

* FT Group to take a major stake in MarketWatch.com, operator of one of
America's leading financial information website

* ft.com and MarketWatch.com to form marketing alliance

The Financial Times Group, part of Pearson plc, the international media
company, has today announced an agreement to merge its asset valuation
business (FTAM) with the Data Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), one of America's
leading providers of real-time financial market data to traders and individual
investors. The combination will create one of the world's leading sources of
securities pricing and specialist financial information to global
institutional, professional and individual investors.  The Financial Times
Group will merge FTAM with DBC and take a 60% stake in the combined business. 
On completion of the deal, Stuart Clark, President of FTAM, will become
President of the newly merged business. The combined business is expected to
have pro forma revenues in 1999 of some $320m.

DBC owns a 32% stake in MarketWatch.com, operator of CBS.MarketWatch.com,
which is one of the leading and fastest growing financial information websites
in the United States, providing real-time breaking financial news and
commentary on market-moving trends and events.  The Financial Times Group will
take up DBC's representation on the MarketWatch.com board and will form a
marketing alliance with MarketWatch.com to cross-promote CBS.MarketWatch.com
and ft.com, the leading international business information website, in both
North America and Europe.  The CBS Corporation has a similar sized stake in
MarketWatch.com.

FTAM is the leading source of specialist pricing, dividend, corporate action
and asset management information to major institutional investors around the
world, with its databases used to value many of the world's leading investment
funds. DBC specialises primarily in meeting the needs of individual investors
and professional traders through providing analytical tools and investment
models as well as real time 'quote streaming' services. The expanded business
will be better placed to provide a more comprehensive service to every sector
of the global money management community and develop more rapidly a wider
range of Internet-delivered products. The new business will also be able to
achieve significant integration benefits in data collection and technology
infrastructure.   

Commenting on the merger, Stephen Hill, chief executive of the Financial Times
Group, said:

'The merger of FTAM and DBC forms a very powerful combination to offer to the
global money management community. Both businesses have strong market
positions, highly valued content, flexible technology and excellent products.
Together, we will broaden our scope of services across the specialist asset
management and portfolio evaluation markets and deliver more of our products
by Internet.' 

Allan Tessler and Alan Hirschfield, co-CEO's of DBC, stated: ' The merger of
FTAM and DBC, together with our stake in MarketWatch.com and the link to the
FT Group, enhances our global position in the rapidly growing world-wide
market for quality financial information. We believe that this transaction
will accelerate our presence in the Internet world and create significant
long-term value. ' 

Commenting on plans for a marketing alliance with MarketWatch.com, Stephen
Hill said:

'We are very excited at becoming a major shareholder in MarketWatch.com, which
operates one of America's very best financial information websites, and the
opportunities it will open up for ft.com. These are two distinctive and
complementary products. CBS.MarketWatch.com is strongly focused on actionable,
market-oriented news while we are building ft.com as the information partner
of the global business community. We will work together to cross promote and
develop both businesses in Europe and North America.'

Larry Kramer, founder and CEO of MarketWatch.com, said 'This is a very
exciting development for CBS.MarketWatch.com. We look forward to working with
our new partner. Our news operations are very complementary so we can easily
cross promote and help bring each other's content to our respective markets.' 

The transaction, which is subject to the approval of DBC's shareholders,
regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, is expected to be
completed early in the new year. 

For more information:

John Fallon              Pearson plc                     + 44 (0) 207 411 2310
Benjamin Wegg-Prosser

Note to Editors 

DBC, whose shares trade on the NASDAQ national market (Nasdaq:DBCC), generated
revenues of some $108m for the financial year ended June 30, 1999. The
business is strongly cash positive and, in the year ended June 30 1999, it
made operating profits of some $14m before depreciation and goodwill and
intangibles amortisation charges of $15m and its share of MarketWatch.com
losses of $6m. At the close of trading on Friday, 12 November, 1999, DBC had
an equity market capitalisation of $495m.  DBC is one of America's leading
providers of real-time market data to the individual trader and investor. The
company delivers real-time stock quotes, financial information and news to the
PCs, laptops and handheld devices of millions of users via the Internet,
dedicated lines, wireless FM, cable and satellite. Its major businesses
include CMS, which, under the BondEdge brand, provides fixed income portfolio
analytics used by institutional investment managers for valuation and risk
management purposes; eSignal, which provides real time market data, trading
and research delivered via the Internet to the individual trader and broker;
and InSite, which provides market data and research for the professional
market. 

DBC owns approximately 32% of MarketWatch.com, operator of
CBS.MarketWatch.com, which is one of the leading financial news websites in
the United States, providing real-time breaking financial news and commentary
on market-moving trends and events. In the three months to September 30, it
attracted an average of 4.6 million unique monthly visitors and a total of
some 434 million page views (source:Doubleclick, October 1999), a 250%
increase over the same period last year.  In the nine months to 30 September,
it generated revenues of some $15m. MarketWatch.com trades on the NASDAQ
national market  (Nasdaq: MKTW), following its initial public offering in
January 1999, and has a current market valuation of approximately $675m. 

In 1998, FTAM generated pro forma revenues of some $200m. The business
operates as the Interactive Data, Muller Data Corporation (MDC) and Muniview
brands in the United States and as Financial Times Information and Valorinform
in Europe and Asia Pacific. It has a database of more than 3.5 million
securities, including hard-to-value unlisted fixed income instruments, and
specialises in data collections and internally authored evaluations of fixed
income securities. FTAM is a leading source of comprehensive disclosure data,
factor information and independent valuations for a comprehensive range of US
securities and offers full descriptive information of more than 2 million US
municipal bonds. It also collects and distributes corporate action information
on equities and bonds all over the world, specialising in 'hard to get'
information from emerging markets. 

FTAM is part of the Financial Times Group, which also consists of:

* the Financial Times newspaper, the world's leading international business
newspaper;

* ft.com, one of the world's leading international business information
websites;

* the leading business and financial newspapers and websites in France (Les
Echos) and Spain (Expansion), with a new German language business and finance
newspaper and website to be launched in partnership with Gruner + Jahr, one of
Germany's leading newspaper and magazine publishers, early in the new year;

* Financial Times Business, which produces specialist information on energy
and finance markets;

* FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange, which
provides the professional investment community with the leading UK indices
and, together with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, publishes the Eurotop family
of indices;

* AFX news, a news agency jointly owned with Agence France-Presse, which is a
global provider of real-time financial and business news;

* a 50% stake in BDFM, publisher of South Africa's leading financial
newspapers and website;

* and a 50% stake in The Economist group, which publishes the world's leading
weekly business and current affairs journal.

The Financial Times Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media
company, which also owns Pearson Education, the world's leading education
company; Pearson Television, the world's leading international independent
television production company; the Penguin Group, the world's most renowned
English-language publisher; and Recoletos, one of Spain's leading media
companies. For more information about Pearson plc, go to www.pearson.com.