Telegraph’s £575m takeover by German group completed

The Telegraph joins a stable of Axel Springer brands including Bild and Die Welt. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The Telegraph joins a stable of Axel Springer brands including Bild and Die Welt. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images Telegraph’s £575m takeover by German group completed Acquisition by Axel Springer ends three years of uncertainty over ownership of 172-year old titles Business live – latest updates The European media group Axel Springer has completed its £575m takeover of the Telegraph , ending three tumultuous years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 172-year-old titles. The Germany-headquartered company, which gazumped the owner of the Daily Mail by tabling a blockbuster offer at the 11th hour, said it has now received all regulatory approvals in the UK, Ireland and Austria to take full control of Telegraph Media Group (TMG). “Today is a day we have worked towards for a long time, and one we will always remember,” said Mathias Döpfner, its chief executive and controlling shareholder. Comcast to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into separate media business Read more “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.” 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’ £665m offer . He was also pipped by an 11th-hour £844m bid from Nikkei, Japan’s largest media group, to buy the Financial Times in 2015. The Telegraph will join a stable of media brands including leading German titles Bild, Europe’s biggest selling newspaper, and Die Welt, as well as the digital outlets Politico and Business Insider. Döpfner has said that he intends to leverage his digital assets to push the Telegraph’s digital transformation and expand into the US. He has said his stated aim is to invest in the Telegraph to make it the “leading centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world”. “This creates a strong foundation for further accelerating our AI-powered digital transformation,” he said on Tuesday. “Together we can lead the next generation of trusted media.” Döpfner has said the editorial independence of titles was “sacrosanct”, 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. “Axel Springer and we have much in common,” Evans said. “We 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. “After three, difficult years without owners, we look forward to stoking up the engines and setting forth on a new voyage.” The sale of the newspapers was kicked off in 2023 when the Barclay family lost control of the group over £1.16bn of unpai