Daily Mail publisher agrees £500m deal to buy Telegraph newspaper
The publisher of the Daily Mail has agreed a £500 million deal to buy Telegraph Media Group.
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) agreed to purchase the Telegraph from RedBird IMI after an attempted purchase by the Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm was blocked by the then Tory government.
DMGT and RedBird IMI have now entered a period of exclusive talks in which they will finalise the deal and prepare regulatory submissions, which they “expect to happen quickly”.
DMGT said this would give “much-needed certainty and confidence” to Telegraph employees after the protracted takeover process.
DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere said: “I have long admired the Daily Telegraph. My family and I have an enduring love of newspapers and for the journalists who make them.
“The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper and I have grown up respecting it. It has a remarkable history and has played a vital role in shaping Britain’s national debate over many decades.
“Chris Evans is an excellent editor and we intend to give him the resources to invest in the newsroom. Under our ownership, the Daily Telegraph will become a global brand, just as the Daily Mail has.”
The purchase would see the Telegraph become part of DMGT’s stable of media organisations, which also includes Metro, The I Paper and New Scientist.
The media group says it will “invest substantially” in the Telegraph, accelerating its international expansion with a particular focus on the US.
It says the Telegraph would remain editorially independent from DMGT’s other titles.
A spokesman for RedBird IMI said: “DMGT and RedBird IMI have worked swiftly to reach the agreement announced today, which will shortly be submitted to the Secretary of State.”
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: “The Secretary of State notes the announcement of a prospective new deal. She will review any new buyer acquiring the Telegraph in line with the public interest and foreign state influence media mergers regimes set out in legislation.”
DMGT says its case for having the deal approved is “compelling” and added that it would comply with the UK’s Foreign State Influence regime as there will be no foreign state investment or capital in the funding structure.
The rules, which are aimed to stop foreign ownership of the press, saw RedBird IMI, which is state-owned by the United Arab Emirates, blocked from purchasing the newspaper in a joint venture with New York-based private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners also worth around £500 million, after a two-year takeover process.
The DMGT deal comes just a week after a previous £500 million deal, which would have seen RedBird Capital take over the Telegraph, was dropped.
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They should snap up the Express and complete the Axis of Evil.
Reach (formerly Trinity Mirror) did that in 2018
Reach is not DMGT, famously still owned by Viscount Rothermere.
Nothing to see here. The same two titles will still be pumping out the same old mind warping fake nooz!
Daily Mail Wales favourite newspaper.
I know its close but I think the Sun pips the Mail in Cymru.
The least trusted source of news:
https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/uk-newsbrand-trust-rankings-sun-least-trusted-bbc-ft-most
BBC most trusted and the Sun the least trusted. HO HO HO HO I think it has changed a bit now. The Sun will around much longer than the BBC. I read that 12.5% of British households now have no TV licence and the figure is rising.
The BBC may have slipped since Johnson’s people forced it to be more right-wing but it’s unlikely the Sun’s position has improved.
And the licence fee will likely be collected with council tax or it’s replacement in the future. Public service broadcasting is important even if the BBC is forced to change.
I do not think that would work. Non payment of TV licence is a criminal offence. Non payment of council tax is not.
You’d object to it being treated the same? This way each household would pay less than they do today because it wouldn’t be optional, plus there wouldn’t need to have a separate expensive organisation to collect it. Existing ctax support would help those struggling to pay. The money could also go straight to regional broadcasters who then each make a contribution to a central broadcaster covering the UK. That would create a bottom up public service broadcaster led by the regions and nations, rather than a top down organisation primarily for London with tokenistic support for the rest of the… Read more »
It will still be the same lies misinformation and character assassination from the daily fail and torygraph