--- Adds Pearson announcement about Nikkei and background ---
Publishing group Pearson (LON:PSON) is selling the business that owns the Financial Times to Japan's Nikkei for £844mln.
Pearson announced the sale to the Japanese business media group after saying earlier on Thursday that it was in advanced talks with a mystery bidder.
The news came after the FT itself ran a story on Thursday saying the potential buyer was media group Axel Springer, which owns German mass market daily Bild.
But Bloomberg News later reported that Axel Springer had said it was not interested in buying the business.
Other potential bidders had included Bloomberg and rival news agency Thomson Reuters, according to reports.
Pearson, which has owned the FT for 58 years, has been switching away from traditional news and financial publishing to focus more on its education publishing business.
Pearson chief executive John Fallon said: "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."
Tsuneo Kita, chairman and group chief executive of Nikkei, said: "Our motto of providing high-quality reporting on economic and other news, while maintaining fairness and impartiality, is very close to that of the FT.
"We share the same journalistic values. Together, we will strive to contribute to the development of the global economy."
The FT Group includes the Financial Times, FT.com, a 50% shareholding in news magazine The Economist, investment magazine Investors Chronicle and a joint venture with Vedomosti in Russia.
Pearson said a contribution will be made to the Pearson group pension plan following closing of the transaction, expected to be around £90mln.
In addition, the group has committed to fund the pension plan to self-sufficiency in the near term.
Pearson said in October last year that the FT achieved a record paid circulation of almost 690,000.
But 23% year-on-year growth in digital subscriptions to more than 476,000 was offset by declines in print, resulting in a slight decline in year-on-year revenue.
Evercore, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Cazenove acted as financial adviser to Pearson on the deal. Rothschild Group advised Nikkei.