Nikkei Inc., publisher of Japan’s leading business daily said on Monday that it will purchase the Financial Times in a $1.3 billion (£866 million) deal.

The chairman,Tsuneo Kita, has said that the acquisition hopes to use data to win new clients and harness the British newspaper’s skill at getting subscribers to pay for content.

Tsuneo Kita has said;

“Our management objectives at Nikkei are global and digital – those are the two key words – and so for the future, in order to grow as global media and to further promote our digital media business, the best partner is definitely the FT,”

Nikkei and the Financial Times together will now become the world’s largest business media group by number of subscribers, after purchasing all shares in the Financial Times Group following approval from from antitrust authorities in the U.S., the U.K. and other countries.

Combined, the two newspapers have a circulation over double than The Wall Street Journal at approximately 2.97 million.