{"id":665882,"date":"2026-06-30T10:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/665882\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:43:09","slug":"telegraphs-575m-takeover-by-german-group-completed-telegraph-media-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/665882\/","title":{"rendered":"Telegraph\u2019s \u00a3575m takeover by German group completed | Telegraph Media Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European media group Axel Springer has completed its \u00a3575m takeover of the Telegraph<\/a>, ending three tumultuous years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 172-year-old titles.<\/p>\n

The Germany-headquartered company, which gazumped the owner of the Daily Mail by tabling a blockbuster offer at the 11th hour, said it had now received all regulatory approvals in the UK, Ireland and Austria to take full control of Telegraph Media Group<\/a> (TMG).<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a day we have worked towards for a long time, and one we will always remember,\u201d said Mathias D\u00f6pfner, its chief executive and controlling shareholder.<\/p>\n

\u201cAxel 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old, who has run Axel Springer since 2002, lost out on a previous attempt to buy TMG in 2004 when he was beaten by the Barclay brothers\u2019 \u00a3665m offer<\/a>. He was also pipped by an 11th-hour \u00a3844m bid<\/a> from Nikkei, Japan\u2019s largest media group, to buy the Financial Times in 2015.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph will join a stable of media brands including the German titles Bild, Europe\u2019s biggest selling newspaper, and Die Welt, as well as the digital outlets Politico and Business Insider.<\/p>\n

D\u00f6pfner has said that he intends to leverage his digital assets to push the Telegraph\u2019s digital transformation and expand into the US. His stated aim is to invest in the Telegraph to make it the \u201cleading centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis creates a strong foundation for further accelerating our AI-powered digital transformation,\u201d he said on Tuesday. \u201cTogether we can lead the next generation of trusted media.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u00f6pfner has said the editorial independence of titles was \u201csacrosanct\u201d, backing the current suite of executives: Chris Evans, the editor-in-chief of the Telegraph; Allister Heath, the Sunday Telegraph editor; and Anna Jones, the chief executive of TMG.<\/p>\n

\u201cAxel Springer and we have much in common,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe share the same values. We also share the same vision and the same ambition. We believe there are many opportunities to grow the Telegraph, both in the UK and overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter three, difficult years without owners, we look forward to stoking up the engines and setting forth on a new voyage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sale of the newspapers was kicked off in 2023 when the Barclay family lost control of the group over \u00a31.16bn of unpaid debts owed to Lloyds bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The joint venture RedBird IMI \u2013 which is 75% controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and owner of Manchester City \u2013 took control of the publishing group<\/a> after agreeing to pay the Barclays\u2019 debts.<\/p>\n

However, it was forced to put the titles back up for sale after the British government passed a law blocking foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK<\/a>. There is now a 15% cap in place<\/a> after the introduction of the foreign state influence regime.<\/p>\n

A consortium led by Gerry Cardinale\u2019s RedBird Capital, the junior partner in RedBird IMI, tabled a \u00a3500m deal for the titles last year.<\/a> However, it pulled out in November<\/a>, and Daily Mail & General Trust struck its deal later that month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DMGT had been close to taking control<\/a> of the Telegraph titles, having been given permission by the UK government to take over the right-to-buy option from RedBird IMI.<\/p>\n

However, Axel Springer swooped, tabling an offer at a \u00a375m premium to that of DMGT which, combined with a straightforward regulatory process, was accepted by RedBird IMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European media group Axel Springer has completed its \u00a3575m takeover of the Telegraph, ending three tumultuous years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-665882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}