Platts, the energy information arm of the McGraw-Hill Companies, has announced the acquisition of Financial Times (FT) Energy, parent of several energy publications and online data services including Gas Daily and Megawatt Daily, from London-based conglomerate Pearson plc.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources estimated the price at something less than $65 million for the energy publications, including several European energy newsletters and FT Energy’s data and consulting division, RDI. FT Energy reportedly has annual revenues of about $45 million.

Platts, which besides its international oil publications, also publishes North American natural gas and power newsletters, including Inside FERC, Electric Power Daily and Power Markets Week, is expected to consolidate operations with the competing publications. Gas Daily and Megawatt Daily are expected to continue to be published. Adding about 300 employees from FT Energy will bring the Platts organization up to about 600 employees, sources said. The bulk of the FT employees are located in FT Energy’s Boulder, CO database and consulting headquarters, which will become Platts’ center of database, analysis and consulting services.

Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times of London, which bought the bulk of what has been FT Energy’s news division from Washington D.C.-based Pasha Publications in 1998, has had the entire unit on the market for over a year. Last fall Reuters won the bidding for FT Energy, but the deal fell apart during due diligence, sources said. McGraw-Hill, which was an unsuccessful bidder in the earlier round, picked up its competitor on the rebound.

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