Pearson is selling the Financial Times to Japan's Nikkei, which is Asia's largest independent media group, for $1.3B.
The move ends its 60-year ownership of the British salmon-colored paper, enabling Pearson to focus its attention on its global education business.
The FT has bolstered its print/digital circulation 30 percent over the past five years to 737K. Digital accounts for 70 percent of that total circ.
Nikkei takes ownership of the FT, FT.com FTChinese and the Financial Publishing Group (The Banker, Investors Chronicle, Medley Global Advisors, MandateWire).
The FT Group kicked in $500M revenues and $36M in operating income in 2014.
John Fallon, Pearson CEO, said of the deal, "We’ve reached an inflection point in media, driven by the explosive growth of mobile and social. 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."
He said Nikkei "has a long and distinguished track record of quality, impartiality and reliability in its journalism and global viewpoint."
Fallon is confident the FT "will continue to flourish under Nikkei’s ownership.”
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