LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese media group Nikkei agreed on Thursday to buy the Financial Times from Britain's Pearson PSON.L in a $1.3 billion deal that brings together two of the leading financial news operations from Europe and Asia.
1884 - The Financial News is established by London-born journalist and entrepreneur Harry Marks on his return from the United States
1888 - The Financial Times is launched as the friends of the “Honest Financier and the Respectable Broker”, with Leopold Graham as editor and its offices established on Telegraph Street
1891 - FT newspaper sales soar 73 percent from 1890
1893 - The newspaper is first printed on pink paper
1910 - FT introduces a magazine page on Fridays
1919 - Berry Bros, owners of the Sunday Times and, later, the Daily Telegraph, take control of the FT
1935 - A 30-share index is introduced in the FT
1945 - Brendan Bracken, owner of the Financial News, buys the FT and merges the two
1953 - “Industry”, “Commerce” and “Public Affairs” are introduced to the paper’s masthead, reflecting its increased scope of coverage
1957 - The FT is purchased by Pearson, originally a Yorkshire building and engineering company that later branched out into banking, manufacturing, local newspapers and book publishing
1959 - FT circulation tops 100,000
1979 - A European edition starts printing in Frankfurt and circulation reaches 200,000 copies a day
1988 - FT acquires French titles Les Echos and L’Expansion
1989 - FT moves into current Thames-side offices at Southwark Bridge
1995 - FT.com website is launched
2000 - Launch of German-language FT Deutschland, a venture with Gruener + Jahr
2001 - Circulation hits 500,000 copies a day
2003 - Asia edition launched in print and online
2012 - Digital subscriptions exceed global print circulation
2013 - Launch of fastFT, providing market-moving news and views
2015 - Pearson, now the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, agrees to sell FT Group to Nikkei Inc. of Japan
Source - FT website
Compiled by London companies desk
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