Financial Times is in talks to make digital acquisitions

FT logo The Financial Times is in talks to buy companies that strengthen its digital subscription business, reports Gerry Smith of Bloomberg News.

Smith writes, “The publisher is hunting for companies that can ‘support and accelerate our growth in quality content and, in particular, are based on digital subscriptions,’ Ridding said in an interview in New York. The company is also interested in technology firms that bolsters its data analytics — valuable for targeting readers with advertising and subscriber offers, he said.

“‘We have a number of opportunities in the acquisition zone on the radar,’ Ridding said. The newspaper declined to comment on which companies it was talking with. ‘There are some irons in the fire.’

“Nikkei bought the London-based Financial Times a year ago for $1.3 billion after a bidding war with Germany’s Axel Springer SE. Prior to that, the financial newspaper was owned for 58 years by Pearson Plc, which had focused resources on turning around its education business.

“‘That left the FT needing support in particular areas of development,’ Ridding said. ‘Nikkei has been very supportive of the investments we need to make.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.