Nikkei, Japan’s leading publisher of financial news, has bought the Financial Times from Pearson for $1.3 bn, beating out a rival bid from Germany’s Axel Springer, as it seeks to expand it global digital presence.
The purchase represents the first time a Japanese media group has owned a major international newspaper, and combines the FT’s offices in 50 countries with Nikkei’s 54 offices in Japan and 36 international bureaus. Both newspapers run major stock indexes in their home countries and are considered leading sources of financial and stock market news.
The deal includes the Financial Times newspaper, FT.com and publications such as The Banker and Investors Chronicle, but it does not cover the newspaper’s headquarters in London or its 50 percent stake in The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist magazine. The FT has a total circulation in print and online of 737,000 while Nikkei’s flagship Nihon Keizai Shimbun has about 3 mn readers, including more than 400,000 digital subscribers, mostly in Japan.
‘We are at an inflection point in global media. The pace of disruptive change in new technology – in particular, the explosive growth of mobile and social media – poses a direct challenge to how the FT produces and sells its journalism,’ John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson, says on his corporate blog. ‘It presents the FT with a great opportunity too – to reach more readers than ever before, in new and exciting ways.’
Nikkei, which is seeking to strengthen its digital content, says it will maintain the credibility and reputation built by the FT over the past 48 years.
‘Our motto of providing high-quality reporting on economic and other news, while maintaining fairness and impartiality, is very close to that of the FT,’ Tsuneo Kita, Nikkei Group CEO, says in a press release. ‘We share the same journalistic values. Together, we will strive to contribute to the development of the global economy.’
