The Daily Telegraph‘s sale to Germany’s Axel Springer for £575M ($761M) has completed.
The deal brings to and end a long period of uncertainty at Telegraph Media Group (TMG), which publishes the 172-year-old Telegraph tabloid newspaper in the UK. It closed after regulatory approval was gained in the UK, Ireland and Austria.
Axel Springer, owner of German tabloid Bild and dozens of other titles such as Politico and Business Insider, is planning for TMG “accelerated digital transformation, leverage AI to support innovation and growth, continue to develop its journalistic excellence, and expand into the U.S. market.”
The company swooped to outbid the Daily Mail’s owners in the hunt for TMG, which began when the paper’s long-time owners the Barclays family lost control over unpaid debts to Lloyds Banking Group..
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All3Media owner RedBird IMI, a joint venture between RedBird Capital Partners and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s UAE-based company International Media Investments, then became the Telegraph‘s owner, but was forced to put its titles up for sale after the British government put into place rules restricting foreign state ownership of British media assets.
”Today is a day we have worked towards for a long time, and one we will always remember,” said Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. “Axel Springer was founded in 1946 under a British press license, and The Telegraph was our North Star.
“Axel Springer and The Telegraph share strong commitments to freedom, values, a tradition of embracing and pioneering technological change, and an entrepreneurial will to actively shape the future. This creates a strong foundation for further accelerating our AI-powered digital transformation. Together we can lead the next generation of trusted media.“
TMG comprises the main Telegraph paper, The Sunday Times and its digital platform, along with other assets.
“Today’s closing of the acquisition enables TMG to look forward with confidence as Axel Springer leads the business into a new phase of growth,” said Anna Jones, CEO of TMG. “The Telegraph has shown remarkable resilience over the past three years and remained both agenda-setting and award-winning. During this period we have also delivered double-digit digital commercial growth and increased digital subscriptions by a third. Being part of Axel Springer is an exciting next chapter for TMG.”
