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PEARSON GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS TO ACQUIRE BLUEPRINT TECHNOLOGIES

Acquisition Strengthens Pearson's Design, Build and Operate Capabilities

ARLINGTON,VA., March 20, 2006 - Pearson Government Solutions today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Blueprint Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise architecture and iterative development solutions and services. The integration of Blueprint into Pearson will further strengthen Pearson's ability to help government and commercial customers improve their enterprise performance through cutting edge technology. The formal closing of the acquisition is expected to occur in early April 2006.

Pearson Blueprint Technologies will become an operating business unit of Pearson Government Solutions and will be led by Blueprint Technologies' President, CEO, and co-founder Jeanne O'Kelley. Also on the team will be Norman Lorentz, who in 2002 was appointed by President Bush to be the first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the federal government under the Office of Management and Budget, and joined Blueprint as CTO last year.

"In today's government environment, it is all about producing results, and Blueprint gives Pearson the deep technology tools to design, build, and operate critical business processes that help agency executives meet their mission requirements," said Mac Curtis, CEO, Pearson Government Solutions. "Blueprint's software and enterprise architects are among the best in the industry and we are proud to welcome them as our colleagues."

"The idea behind putting the two companies together is to accelerate our strategic vision to be the premiere design, build, and operate firm in the federal and commercial markets," said O'Kelley. "Both companies can expand new business opportunities and provide our customers with a wider and deeper range of capabilities, solutions and expertise."

"The next stage in the evolution of the Federal Enterprise Architecture is realization - actually building it," said John George, Chief Solutions Officer, Pearson Government Solutions. "Blueprint Technologies' approach to architecture design, combined with Pearson's ability to implement and run systems for their clients, supports the federal government's vision for building the enterprise architecture."

Pearson and Blueprint Technologies currently share a wide number of important government agency customers, and the combination of the two companies will expand Pearson's presence in these agencies. Some shared customers include: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor.

"I joined Blueprint because I wanted to help government agencies deliver a better experience for citizens who interact with those agencies," said Lorentz. "Pearson's experience in building and operating systems to support their client's business processes combined with Blueprint's success in service-oriented architecture and enterprise business modernization allows us to provide the complete package to agency executives."

"This acquisition brings Pearson Government Solutions valuable expertise in enterprise architecture at exactly the right time," said John L. Okay, Ph.D, Partner at Topside Consulting Group and former executive at the General Services Administration and the Department of Agriculture. "First, Pearson will significantly enhance its ability to provide enterprise architecture services to current and future federal customers. Second, Blueprint Technologies' knowledge of enterprise architecture will help Pearson prepare for coming changes in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policies that will essentially force this company and others to align their information technology products and services to the federal enterprise architecture."

Pearson Blueprint Technologies will strengthen Pearson's platform of Design and Build consulting services, including: Business Process Modeling (BPM), Enterprise Architecture (EA) modeling, transition strategies, legacy application analysis, requirements analysis, Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) development.

About Blueprint Technologies, Inc.

Blueprint Technologies is an enterprise modernization firm that specializes in translating business requirements into architecture-based solutions. Blueprint's teams of experienced enterprise and solution architects modernize business services and IT capabilities more quickly and with less risk than its competitors by generating an executable architecture that provides integration and interoperability among business processes and IT services.

Blueprint's architects employ an iterative, model-driven process and reusable assets to rapidly define, design, and align business processes and software services, and to automate executable architecture development. Blueprint's expertise includes the design and deployment of Service Oriented Architectures, based on industry-standard Web Service technologies.

About Pearson Government Solutions

With over 5,000 employees worldwide, Pearson Government Solutions, Arlington, Va., serves the U.S. federal, state and local and international governments; higher education institutions and student financial aid entities. The company designs, builds, and operates solutions that optimize the performance of public sector entities in delivering information, benefits, and services to their constituents. Clients include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Pearson Government Solutions is a business of Pearson, the international publishing, education and professional services company, including the Financial Times Group, and the Penguin Group.