Connect with us

Entertainment

Japanese firm grabs Financial Times for $1.3bn

Published

on

Japanese media group Nikkei has agreed to buy the Financial Times from Britain’s Pearson for $1.3 billion, putting one of the world’s premier business newspapers in the hands of a company influential at home but little known outside Japan, reports Reuters.

The deal, struck after Nikkei beat Germany’s Axel Springer (SPRGn.DE) to the prize, marks the biggest acquisition by a Japanese media organization and is a coup for the employee-owned firm which lends its name to the main Japanese stock market index.

In the Financial Times it has acquired an authoritative global newspaper that commands strong loyalty from its readers and has coped better than others with the shift to online publishing. It was one of the first newspapers to successfully charge for access to its website.

Established in 1884 and first printed on pink paper in 1893 to stand out from rivals, the FT has employed some of the leading figures in media and politics, including Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp (NWSA.O), former British finance minister Nigel Lawson and Ed Balls, an adviser to former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“I am extremely proud of teaming up with the Financial Times, one of the most prestigious news organizations in the world,” said Tsuneo Kita, chairman and group CEO of Nikkei. “We share the same journalistic values.”

The Nikkei newspaper, which has a circulation surpassing 3 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.

Read also: Toshiba boss quits over profits scandal

According to tweets from journalists who were addressed by the paper’s management, FT Editor Lionel Barber told staff the deal “was not and is not a shotgun marriage”, saying there had been hours of conversation.

Reporters at the paper told Reuters there was some apprehension, as they knew very little about their new owner, but there was also relief they had not been bought by Bloomberg – another potential buyer – which could have resulted in duplication of staff roles and more potential job cuts.

Chief Executive John Fallon told reporters he believed that like Pearson, the new owner had a commitment to the “fairness and accuracy of its reporting, and to the integrity and independence of its journalism”.

Ripples… without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now