Nikkei and the Financial Times

The purchase price is apparently 35 times the FT's annual profits. That is a LOT of goodwill, especially as it doesn't include Number One Southwark Bridge. Remember too that back in the mid-1980s, a Japanese buyer paid (IIRC) almost £200m to buy Bracken House, the FT's former London HQ, which was promptly listed, almost before the ink was dry on the contract. Whatever else you might think, Pearson has dealt very shrewdly with the Japanese.