The Daily Telegraph has been for sale for about three years, during which deals have fallen apart or been blocked. Photograph: James Manning/PAView image in fullscreenThe Daily Telegraph has been for sale for about three years, during which deals have fallen apart or been blocked. Photograph: James Manning/PAAxel Springer to buy Telegraph for £575m, elbowing aside Daily Mail owner German owner of Bild and Die Welt is understood to have agreed all-cash deal for one of UK’s oldest newspapers
Axel Springer, the owner of Politico and Business Insider, is to acquire the Telegraph after tabling a £575m deal that has scuppered a rival deal from the owner of the Daily Mail.
Springer, which also owns Europe’s biggest newspaper, Bild, and the daily Die Welt, is understood to have agreed an all-cash deal for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.
Mathias Döpfner, the longstanding chief executive of the German media group, has made no secret of his desire to acquire assets after striking a deal with the private equity group KKR to take the media empire private two years ago.
Read moreThe deal tabled by Axel Springer is a significant premium to the £500m deal from Daily Mail & General Trust.
In 2015, Axel Springer was pipped by an 11th-hour blockbuster £844m bid from Nikkei, Japan’s largest media group, to buy the Financial Times.
Döpfner was trumped by a blockbuster £665m offer for the Telegraph by the Barclay brothers in 2004 and three years ago cast doubt on the likelihood of any future takeover of the group, saying Axel Springer was focused on a digital-only future.
DMGT had been close to securing a deal to take control of the Telegraph titles, having been given permission by the UK government to take over the right-to-buy option from RedBird IMI.
However, in recent weeks RedBird IMI, the UAE-backed group that now controls the Telegraph, started talks the German group after it expressed interest in tabling a superior offer.
DMGT, RedBird IMI and Axel Springer have been contacted for comment.
