Financial Times acquires media startup Deal Street Asia

Acquiring Financial Times, Nikkei continues to invest in new media companies. The acquisition of Deal Street Asia will be a major event and it will become a new media startup partner in the Southeast Asian and Indian market.

The Financial Times is buying Deal Street Asia, a new Singapore-based media startup. Founded in 1888, the British Financial Times will close the deal in April according to many sources, and Deal Street Asia will be owned by the Financial Times.

Established in 2014, Deal Street Asia stands out as a media company that makes news about the financial markets and business verticals in Asia. The highlight of Deal Street Asia, which produces content from different regions, including Southeast Asia and the Indian market, are the events it organizes. Standing out in the region with its summits, Deal Street Asia brings together hundreds of senior executives through the Asia-PE-VC Summit event. The tickets for this event, which will be held in September 2019 and to which thousands of people will attend, are sold at 2000 dollars.

Financial Times' main point of buying Deal Street Asia after the acquisition of The Next Web: Events

As a well-known media company and having made its mark in the last months, the Financial Times had already acquired The Next Web in the beginning of this month. The Next Web is also at the forefront with its conferences. According to the statements, approximately 70 percent of TNW's revenues are from events and advertisements and it is estimated that Deal Street Asia has a similar profile. In short, the Financial Times, which acquired new event-oriented media companies, expanded to the European market with The Next Web and has seized the Asian market with Deal Street Asia.

Established by Indian journalists Joji Thomas Philip and Sushobhan Mukherjee, Deal Street Asia has so far been able to get investment from investors, such as Singapore Press Holdings, Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Singapore Angel Network and Hindustan Times. Under the deal, Financial Times will have at least one-third of Deal Street Asia, but if shareholders decide to sell, the share of the new buyer may exceed 51 percent and the buyer can become the dominant partner, as in The Next Web deal.

The Financial Times won't be involved in the acquisition of Deal Street Asia. It will be over its owner Nikkei. As known, the Japanese company Nikkei acquired the Financial Times for 1.29 billion dollars in 2015. In this sense, it is possible to say that Nikkei has invested in important new media startups in addition to Financial Times, and strengthened its presence in Europe and Asia.