FT owner denies it is looking to sell

The owner of the Financial Times on Tuesday denied it was planning to dump the business newspaper after earlier reports suggested it was "planning to explore a sale". Media wire Bloomberg reported that British media group Pearson was sounding out a private sale and that the company "has decided to consider offers for the newspaper this year". Pearson released a statement within an hour, saying it was "not in the habit of responding to rumours, speculation or reports about our portfolio". It added: "However, this particular Bloomberg story is wrong." According to reports, Pearson is looking to offload the £1 billion ($1.6 billion, 1.2 billion euros) valued company within months in order to focus on its fast-growing education division. Chief Executive Majorie Scardino has said the paper would only be sold "over my dead body" but analysts have been predicting a sale since she announced her retirement on October 3. Successor John Fallon has refused to rule out a sale of the paper, which has suffered from declining readership. Pearson last month agreed to merge book publishing unit Penguin with Random House in a move seen by analysts as proof that radical strategic decisions were being taken.