Annual report and accounts 2008

Notes contentsNotes to consolidated financial statements

3. Discontinued operations

Discontinued operations relate to the Group’s interest in Government Solutions (sold on 15 February 2007), Datamark (sold on 31 July 2007), Les Echos (sold on 24 December 2007) and the Data Management business (sold on 22 February 2008).

The results of the Data Management business (previously included in the Professional segment) have been included in discontinued operations for both 2007 and 2008. In anticipation of the loss on sale, an impairment to held for sale goodwill was charged to the income statement in 2007. The assets and liabilities of the Data Management business were reported as held for sale in the 31 December 2007 balance sheet.

The results of Government Solutions (previously included in the Professional segment) and Les Echos (previously included in the FT Publishing segment) were included in discontinued operations for 2007 and were consolidated up to the date of sale.

Datamark was sold immediately following its acquisition as part of the eCollege transaction and consequently none of the results for this business were consolidated.

An analysis of the results and cash flows of discontinued operations are as follows:

All figures in £ millions	2008
	Data Management
Sales	8
Operating profit	—
Profit before tax	—
Attributable tax expense	—
Profit after tax	—
Loss on disposal of discontinued operations before tax	(53)
Attributable tax expense	(37)
Loss for the year from discontinued operations	(90)
Operating cash flows	—
Investing cash flows	—
Financing cash flows	—
Total cash flows	—

All figures in £ millions					2007
	Data Management	Les Echos	Datamark	Government Solutions	Total
Sales	56	82	—	29	167
Operating profit	12	1	—	2	15
Goodwill impairment	(97)	—	—	—	(97)
(Loss)/profit before tax	(85)	1	—	2	(82)
Attributable tax expense	(4)	—	—	(1)	(5)
(Loss)/profit after tax	(89)	1	—	1	(87)
Profit/(loss) on disposal of discontinued operations before tax	—	165	—	(19)	146
Attributable tax (expense)/benefit	—	—	7	(93)	(86)
(Loss)/profit for the year from discontinued operations	(89)	166	7	(111)	(27)
Operating cash flows	11	4	—	(8)	7
Investing cash flows	(1)	4	—	—	3
Financing cash flows	(10)	(7)	—	(4)	(21)
Total cash flows	—	1	—	(12)	(11)