Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is advising Japanese media group Nikkei Inc. on its proposed $1.3 billion purchase of FT Group, publisher of the Financial Times, from U.K. education company Pearson Plc.

Nikkei, Japan's largest media company with a circulation of about 3 million and which publishes a top business newspaper of the same name, beat out Axel Springer for the acquisition. Axel Springer had been in talks with Pearson about buying FT Group for nearly a year before Nikkei swept in just over a month ago with a stronger bid.

“Pearson has been a proud proprietor of the FT for nearly 60 years,” Pearson chief executive John Fallon said in a statement. “But 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.”