Axel Springer to buy publisher of UK Daily Telegraph
German media group Axel Springer has agreed to buy the UK owner of the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The 575 million-pound ($1.1 billion) deal ends a long saga over the ownership of Telegraph Media Group, which publishes the 171-year-old Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister newspaper.
Axel Springer in question will invest in the group “to ensure it becomes the leading centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world”.
“We tried to buy The Telegraph more than 20 years ago but were unsuccessful. Now our dream is coming true,” said Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner.
The German company owns the popular Bild tabloid and Welt newspaper, as well as newspapers such as Business Insider and Politico.
“Telegraph represents freedom, personal responsibility, democratic values and belief in open societies and market economies. These beliefs closely align with our Axel Springer core values,” Döpfner said.
The deal comes after years of uncertainty over the newspapers’ future and defeats a rival bid from the Daily Mail’s owner to buy the Telegraph books.
The Telegraph group, previously owned by the Barclay family, was put up for sale in 2023 to help pay the family’s debts.
The offer to buy the broadcasts came from RedBird Capital Partners and RedBird IMI, a consortium backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and vice president of the United Arab Emirates.
The consortium withdrew in 2024 following strong opposition from the UK government, which introduced legislation preventing local media from remaining under foreign state ownership.
with DPA
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
