John Fallon, Pearson’s chief executive, said: “Pearson has been a proud proprietor of the Financial Times for nearly 60 years. But 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.
“Pearson will now be 100% focused on our global education strategy. The world of education is changing profoundly and we see huge opportunity to grow our business through increasing access to high quality education globally.
“Nikkei has a long and distinguished track record of quality, impartiality and reliability in its journalism and global viewpoint. The board and I are confident that the Financial Times will continue to flourish under Nikkei’s ownership”.
One journalist on the paper said: “It is safe to say we are very concerned about this development. It’s been announced very quickly. There was talk of both potential buyers [Axel Springer and Nikkei] but there wasn’t time enough to form an opinion.” Barber is due to address staff on the paper at 4pm.
Nikkei is one of the largest media companies in Japan, spanning newspapers, broadcasting, magazines and digital media. The group includes flagship newspaper Nikkei, which has 3 million subscribers, English language business title Nikkei Asian Review, TV Tokyo and finance and business news channel, Nikkei CBNC.