Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) chief executive John Fallon will retire next year, the educational publisher announced alongside also the US$675mln (£530mln) sale of remaining stake in Penguin Random House.
After agreeing to sell its 25% stake in the consumer book publishing business to partner Bertelsmann, the FTSE 100 group said it will carry out a £350mln share buy-back.
The disposal, which follows Pearson’s sale of a 22% stake two years ago, is expected to be completed before June next year.
Fallon said offloading the remaining stake of Penguin “enables Pearson now to be completely focused on building the world's leading digital learning company”.
In a separate statement, the company said that Fallon will retire once a successor has been appointed, with both external and internal candidates being considered in the succession process.
The news comes as the group continues to struggle in the shifting landscape of educational publishing, despite its increasing efforts at digitisation and plan to cut £330mln of annual costs.
A profit warning in September followed a quarter where US higher education courseware sales fell 10%.
Fallon said on Wednesday: "There's a lot still to do but we're making good progress in navigating Pearson through a period of huge change. We're now a much more efficient company, able to innovate more quickly and scale globally.
"We are investing more in our business than ever before and pioneering new forms of online education that link learning to employability. Over 75% of the company is now growing, as we work our way through a major industry wide disruption in the other 25% of Pearson - US higher education courseware."
Pearson shares, which earlier this month sank to near a two-year low, were up 3% to 660.54p on Wednesday morning.
Broker Liberum said: "We would make the point that the latest profit warning impacted faith in management’s ability to predict trends or give guidance for the business, so this may be the start of a rebuilding and transformation process for Pearson."