Editing Future plc (section)

=== 1985–2012 ===
The company was founded by [[Chris Anderson (entrepreneur)|Chris Anderson]] as Future Publishing in [[Somerton, Somerset]], England, with the sole magazine ''[[Amstrad Action]]'' in 1985.<ref name="nicholas1999">{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/profile-chris-anderson-media-with-passion-1105628.html |title=Profile: Chris Anderson: Media with passion |last=Nicholas |first=Ruth |date=11 July 1999 |work=The Independent |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130114033426/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/profile-chris-anderson-media-with-passion-1105628.html |archive-date=14 January 2013 |location=London |url-status=live}}</ref> An early innovation was the inclusion of free software on magazine covers.<ref name="nicholas1999" /> It acquired GP Publications and established what would become [[Future US]] in 1994.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fKzSAgAAQBAJ&q=GP+Publications+1993+future+plc&pg=PA220 |title=Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain |first1=Howard |last1=Cox |first2=Simon |last2=Mowatt |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0199601639 |page=220 |access-date=11 November 2020 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230816114504/https://books.google.com/books?id=fKzSAgAAQBAJ&q=GP+Publications+1993+future+plc&pg=PA220 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Anderson sold the company to [[Pearson plc]] for £52.7m in 1994, but bought it back in 1998, for £142 million.<ref name="nicholas1999" /> The company was [[Initial public offering|floated]] on the [[London Stock Exchange]] in 1999.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://flashesandflames.com/2014/04/06/can-new-future-ceo-save-magazine-group/ |title=Can new Future CEO end 15 years of boom & bust? |date=6 April 2014 |publisher=Flashes and Flames |access-date=17 June 2019 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230315104431/https://flashesandflames.com/2014/04/06/can-new-future-ceo-save-magazine-group/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Anderson left the company in 2001.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_09/b4168068827012.htm |title=TED's Not Dead, But It Is Aging: The annual conference tries to reach out to a new generation, awkwardly |last=Walters |first=Helen |date=18 February 2010 |work=[[Business Week]] |access-date=16 March 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100221081506/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_09/b4168068827012.htm |archive-date=21 February 2010}}</ref>

In 2004, the company was accused of corruption when it published positive reviews for the video game ''[[Driver 3]]'' in two of its owned magazines, ''[[Xbox World]]'' and ''[[PSM3|PSM2]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lui |first=Spandas |title=A history of gaming's biggest scandals |work=PC World |date=30 March 2010 |url= http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/341103/history_gaming_biggest_scandals/?pp=2 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160630205613/http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/341103/history_gaming_biggest_scandals/?pp=2 |access-date=4 May 2023 |archive-date=30 June 2016}}</ref>