A German publishing group which supports a united Europe has launched a bid to buy the Eurosceptic Telegraph newspaper.
Axel Springer is backing an attempt by Dovid Efune, the owner of US news website the New York Sun, to strike a last-minute deal to purchase the historic British broadsheet – despite negotiations being at an advanced stage for DMGT, the owners of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, to acquire the title.
News of the bid broke just hours after Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, gave permission for RedBird IMI, the owners of The Telegraph, to sell security over its newspaper to DMGT for £500million – the same amount offered by the Springer consortium.
Axel Springer, which owns the Welt and Bild newspapers, backs a United Europe and requires its German employees to sign a written commitment to principles which include support for the right to existence of the State of Israel and the US-European alliance.
While employees of its non-German outlets such as Politico and Business Insider, do not have to sign, the chief executive of the Berlin-based company, Mathias Döpfner, has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying the principles ‘are like a constitution, they apply to every employee of our company’ and employees who disagreed ‘should not work for Axel Springer, very clearly’.
News of the Axel Springer bid broke just hours after Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, gave permission for RedBird IMI, the owners of The Telegraph, to sell security over its newspaper to DMGT for £500million – the same amount offered by the Springer consortium
Chief executive of the Berlin-based company Mathias Döpfner is pictured in July 2023
Other backers for the consortium are understood to include David Smith, the broadcasting tycoon and Baltimore Sun owner, and Jeremy Hosking, the hedge fund boss who finances Lawrence Fox’s Reclaim political party, as well as another unnamed British individual.
The consortium said: ‘We believe our proposal is in the best interests of the seller, The Telegraph, its staff, readers and the wider British public.
‘Our commitment to securing the best possible outcome for all parties in this long and winding saga has never wavered.’
DMGT agreed a £500million deal for The Telegraph in November last year; earlier this month Ms Nandy said that she had issued a public interest intervention notice over concerns that the acquisition warranted investigation on public interest and competition grounds.
The media regulator Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority must report back to Nandy by June 10.
The Telegraph has been in limbo since Redbird IMI tried to buy the newspapers in 2023.
The deal was ultimately blocked by the government, over fears of foreign state influence over a British newspaper, leading Redbird to seek approval under a revised structure that would cap IMI’s involvement at 15 per cent.
It later withdrew its bid in November, and in December asked Ms Nandy to transfer its interest in the newspapers to DMGT.
The proposed acquisition by DMGT would bring The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph under the same umbrella as the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Metro and The i Paper.
DMGT has said The Telegraph would remain editorially independent, as are all DMGT titles.
Mr Döpfner is a vocal supporter of artificial intelligence (AI), telling staff last year that they were now obliged to use the technology in their reporting and that his new mantra was ’embrace AI or die’.
Mr Efune has previously sought financing from parties including the family office of Leon Black, the Wall Street tycoon brought down by his status as one of Jeffrey Epstein’s biggest clients.
Last night, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said of the prospect of a pro-Brussels media giant owning The Telegraph: ‘I have said throughout that foreign money should not be used to buy The Telegraph, be it Chinese, Middle Eastern or even from the EU.’