The Financial Times newspaper is to be sold to a Japanese firm for stg£844m (€1.19bn).

Nikkei is to buy the FT Group from British company Pearson, which has owned the news organisation for 58 years.

The Financial Times says: "Pearson has for the past few weeks been exploring a sale of the group, which comprises the Financial Times, a number of related titles and a 50% stake in the Economist Group, publisher of the Economist magazine."

But the deal excludes the Economist stake and the FT Group headquarters in London.

According to its website, the Financial Times has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 720,000.

Its number of digital subscriptions surpassed those of print in 2012, and now account for 70% of the total.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Pearson was sounding out bidders for a sale which may have valued the publication at as much as €1.47bn.

The FT has a team of 500 journalists in more than 50 locations, and was bought by Pearson in 1957.

Shares in Pearson Plc rose on the news.