Axel Springer SE has moved to purchase the Tory party-affiliated British outlet The Telegraph
FILE PHOTO: Copies of The Daily Telegraph on display at a newspaper stand, London, UK, March 6, 2026. © Getty Images / Jack Taylor
Germany’s
Axel Springer SE, the owner of Bild, Politico, and Business Insider,
has announced that it will buy out The Telegraph for £575 million ($771
million). The deal would unite two of Europe’s most influential
conservative brands, and sink efforts from the owner of its tabloid
rival, the Daily Mail, to purchase the center-right newspaper.
In a
press release on Friday, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Dopfner said that he
would preserve Telegraph Media Group’s (TMG) editorial independence,
develop its use of AI, and invest in the outlet’s expansion into the US
market.
“Axel Springer will back an investment program in TMG to grow and expand the business to enable it to become the leading center-right media outlet in the English-speaking world,” he said.
The
Telegraph’s values closely align with Axel Springer’s support for
Israel and close ties between Europe and the US, Bloomberg cited Dopfner
as saying in a recent internal memo to Politico staff.
The German media powerhouse agreed to the deal with RedBird IMI, a
joint venture between US-based private-equity firm Redbird and global
media company International Media Investments, owned by the UAE’s Sheikh
Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the ruler of Dubai.
RedBird IMI paid
off £600 million ($760 million) of TMG’s loans in 2023, effectively
taking control of the group. However, its attempts at ownership had been
unsuccessful amid UK concerns about Middle Eastern state involvement in
a staple British newspaper.
In November, an attempt by the owners
of conservative tabloid Daily Mail to buy The Telegraph stalled after
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy ordered a regulatory probe over concerns
that the merger of the two right-leaning news heavyweights would affect
the “plurality of views” in the UK.
The purchase would mark Dopfner’s first buyout in British media.
Washington has increasingly accused European governments of suppressing conservative views in news and social media.
US President Donald Trump’s recent national security strategy accused the EU of pursuing policies of “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition,” and of undermining member states’ “political liberty and sovereignty.”
Last
week, right-wing opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which
has faced a crackdown from the German government, accused the EU of
trying to interfere in Hungarian parliamentary elections against the
party of conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.