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Business News Deals Media
Japanese media firm buys the Financial Times
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 24 July 2015
Following rumours earlier this week that the latest rumours that media firm Pearson was selling the Financial Times weren’t just like all the previous rumours that media firm Pearson was selling the Financial Times and in fact this time media firm Pearson was selling the Financial Times, yesterday media firm Pearson announced it was selling the Financial Times.
Leading to all sorts of rumours as to who might be buying it. Newswires Reuters and Bloomberg had long been tipped as possible buyers for the UK-based business newspaper, the logic being they’d be attracted by the prestige that comes with owning the FT. And after Pearson confirmed it was close to selling the broadsheet yesterday morning, Reuters quickly reported that Reuters was again a rumoured bidder, though that Reuters had refused to comment on the speculation. This despite most people in the know being certain German media company Axel Springer was the main bidder.
Except by the end of the day Pearson had announced that, actually, Japanese business media group Nikkei was the lucky new owner of the Financial Times via an £844 million deal. For its part, Pearson, which has owned the FT since 1957, confirmed that it wanted to focus on its core education business, while Nikkei CEO Tsuneo Kita said that the British business newspaper would be at home in his company’s portfolio of media because: “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”.
Pearson boss John Fallon implied there had been a bidding war for the newspaper, while adding that he was confident the FT’s new owners would respect its reputation for editorial independence unhindered by its corporate bosses. Certainly the paper’s current editorial regime is expected to stay in place after the acquisition.
The deal with Nikkei did not include the FT’s 50% stake in The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist, obviously. It is thought negotiations may be underway for a separate sale of that asset.
