Pearson to sell Financial Times to Nikkei for $1.3 billion

Japanese media company Nikkei Inc. is buying the Financial Times as part of an 844 million-pound ($1.3 billion) deal with Britain’s Pearson PLC. The deal, announced Thursday, is part of Nikkei’s strategy to boost its global reach and also allows Pearson to concentrate on its core global education business. John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson, said the company has been a proud proprietor of the Financial Times for nearly 60 years, but the rapidly changing media landscape meant it’s time for the salmon-colored business daily to change hands.

In this new environment, the best way to ensure the FT’s journalistic and commercial success is for it to be part of a global, digital news company.

John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson

As part of the deal, Pearson has agreed to sell the vast majority of the assets in FT Group, including the Financial Times newspaper and the popular FT.com. However, Pearson will retain its 50 percent stake in the Economist Group as well as the FT’s London headquarters on the banks of the Thames River. The sale of the Financial Times has been rumored for some time, but the identity of its potential buyer proved something of a surprise. The paper has always been British-owned. The deal would be one of the largest-ever acquisitions by a Japanese media company, according to Nikkei Asian Review, one of the company’s outlets.

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