https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist_Group Ownership After the death of its founder James Wilson in 1850, The Economist was held in testamentary trust for his six daughters and their dependents. The eldest, Mrs Bagehot, whose husband Walter was editor at the time of Wilson's death, maintained a close personal interest in the paper until her death in 1921. Subsequently the Wilson trustees were concerned whether surviving beneficiaries would keep touch with the paper's direction, as further deaths formed subsidiary trusts over time. So in 1928 the Wilson Trust decided to sell the paper, whilst creating a structure intended to maintain its reputation for 'independent judgment and unfettered criticism'. A non-controlling 50% went to the Financial Times, and the other half to an influential group of individual shareholders. A new board of independent trustees was created, with rights both to veto the transfer of voting shares and to choose or remove editors-in-chief, who in turn would have sole responsibility for the paper's policy.[2] Ownership of the 50% shareholding passed to Pearson plc when they bought The Financial Times Limited (FT) in 1957. Later, however, when Pearson plc was negotiating the sale of FT, the Economist's independent trustees veto 'complicated attempts at a deal'.[3] Finally, in August 2015, as part of their sale of the FT to Nikkei, Inc., Pearson sold their share in the Economist.[4] The Agnelli family's Exor paid £287 million to raise their stake from 4.7% to 43.4%, while the Economist paid £182 million for the balance of 5.04 million shares which will be distributed to current shareholders.[5] Aside from the Agnelli family, smaller shareholders in the company include Cadbury, Rothschild (21%), Schroder, Layton and other family interests as well as a number of staff and former staff shareholders.[5][6]