Telegraph sold for £575m as German buyer elbows out Daily Mail | Telegraph Media Group

European media group Axel Springer is to buy the Telegraph after a £575 million deal scuppered a rival deal with the owner of the Daily Mail.

Axel Springer, owner of Europe’s largest newspaper Bild and daily newspaper Die Welt, has signed an all-cash deal for Telegraph Media Group (TMG), owner of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers.

Mathias Döpfner, Axel Springer’s long-time CEO, has made no secret of his desire to buy assets after striking a deal with private equity group KKR to privatize his media empire two years ago.

The proposed takeover by Axel Springer, which owns Politico and Business Insider, is a significant premium over the £500 million deal Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) agreed to in November.

Döpfner was eclipsed by the Barclay brothers’ blockbuster £665 million bid for the Telegraph in 2004, and three years ago he cast doubt on the possibility of any future takeover of the group by saying Axel Springer was focused solely on a digital future.

“We tried to buy the Telegraph more than 20 years ago but failed,” he said. “Now our dream is coming true. It is a privilege and a duty to be the owner of this institution of quality British journalism.”

Döpfner backs the current executives, Telegraph editor Chris Evans, Sunday Telegraph editor Allister Heath and TMG chief executive Anna Jones, saying the editorial independence of titles is “sacred”.

He added that Axel Springer plans to invest in the Telegraph to make it “the leading centre-right media organization in the English-speaking world” and plans a rapid expansion for the US, supported by “significant expertise” from Politico and Business Insider.

“Editorial independence is sacred at Axel Springer,” Döpfner said. “We believe that the best way to maintain this is through financial and economic success. We see tremendous growth potential for TMG. Technological excellence and transformation with the best AI tools are critical to this.”

The 63-year-old actor, who sits on the boards of Netflix and Warner Music, started out as a music journalist, became editor of Die Welt and became managing director of Axel Springer in 2002.

In 2020, Friede Springer, the widow of German media group founder Axel, named Döpfner as his successor in an arrangement that gave Döpfner control of 22% of the business, the power to exercise all voting rights attached to his shares, and made him a billionaire.

DMGT came close to taking control of the Telegraph companies as the UK government allowed it to take over the right-to-purchase option from RedBird IMI.

But in recent weeks, RedBird IMI, the United Arab Emirates-backed group that controls the Telegraph, has begun talks with Axel Springer after it expressed interest in making a superior offer.

Unlike DMGT, whose culture secretary Lisa Nandy approached UK competition and media regulators for investigation last month, the German media group is not expected to face regulatory hurdles.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Axel Springer after a quick and productive negotiation,” said a RedBird IMI spokesperson. “Thanks to the strength of their commercial offering and a simple regulatory pathway to ownership… our team is currently working closely with the UK government to obtain the necessary approvals to complete this transaction.”

Axel Springer and RedBird IMI acknowledged the “essential support and assistance” provided by New York Sun owner Dovid Efune, who was initially part of the deal.

“Axel Springer will be an exemplary owner of this treasure of western journalism,” Efune said. “We are delighted to have played a meaningful role in guiding this positive outcome and helping to secure the Telegraph’s long-term future.”

The takeover looks set to end three years of uncertainty for Telegraph staff.

The sale of the newspapers began in 2023 after the Barclay family lost control of the group over its £1.16bn outstanding debt to Lloyds bank.

RedBird IMI, which is 75 percent controlled by UAE vice president and Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, took control of the publishing group after Barclays agreed to pay its debts.

However, the newspapers had to be put back on sale after the British government passed a law preventing foreign governments or associated persons from owning a newspaper presence in the UK. Following the introduction of the foreign state influence regime, a 15% cap is now in place.

A consortium led by Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, junior partner in the RedBird IMI venture, offered a £500 million deal for the titles last year.

However, he withdrew in November and DMGT reached an agreement later that month.

“We recognize that the wonderful journalists and staff at TMG are operating in a long period of uncertainty,” Döpfner said. “This is never easy. We want to end this uncertainty as quickly as possible.”

According to the latest 2024 file of the Companies House, approximately 900 personnel work at TMG, and it appears that approximately 400 of them are journalists.

GB News backer Sir Paul Marshall has struck a £100m deal to buy Spectator, also part of DMGT, in 2024.

In 2015, Axel Springer backed out of an 11th-hour blockbuster £844 million bid from Japan’s largest media group, Nikkei, to buy the Financial Times.

DMGT has been approached for comment.