Biggest acquisition by a Japanese media house: Nikkei buys Financial Times for $1.3 bn

Japanese media group Nikkei on Thursday said it would buy the Financial Times from Britain’s Pearson in a $1.3-billion deal that brings together two of the leading financial news operations from Europe and Asia. The deal marks the biggest acquisition by a Japanese media organisation and is a coup for Nikkei, an employee-owned firm that also lends its name to the main Japanese stock market index. In the Financial Times, it has acquired a title established in 1884 and first printed on pink paper in 1893 to stand out from rivals. It has been owned by Pearson for about 60 years. [caption id=“attachment_2360508” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] With a reputation for first-class analysis and breaking news, it was one of the first newspapers to charge for its content online and has coped better than most newspapers with the transition to digital publishing. “I am extremely proud of teaming up with the Financial Times, one of the most prestigious news organisations in the world,” said Tsuneo Kita, chairman and group chief executive of Nikkei. “We share the same journalistic values.” The Nikkei newspaper, which has a circulation surpassing three million for its morning edition alone, enjoys a must-read reputation for financial and business news in Japan but has struggled to break out of its home market. The paper, with deep ties to corporate Japan, has also faced criticism for running earnings ‘previews’, considered to be leaks, days ahead of corporate results at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has been pushing for greater corporate transparency. As the news broke of the Nikkei deal, an FT journalist tweeted a photograph showing staff in their newsroom crowded around a television watching the developments. Reuters