UK approves takeover of Telegraph newspaper by German publishing giant Axel Springer

Published on 14/04/2026 - 18:29 GMT+2

The UK authorities gave the greenish airy connected Tuesday for German media radical Axel Springer to bargain the British regular paper The Telegraph, ending a drawn-out pursuit of the 170-year-old title.

The Labour government's Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said successful a connection that she is "not minded to intervene successful this merger" implicit contention and foreign-ownership concerns.

Axel Springer, which owns German newspapers Bild and Die Welt arsenic good arsenic the Politico quality outlet, past period announced it would wage £575 cardinal (€661 million) successful currency for The Telegraph's people and online versions.

That came aft the UK authorities launched an probe successful February into an agreed merchantability of The Telegraph to the proprietor of the Daily Mail, a rival British right-wing publication, citing contention concerns.

That probe has been made redundant by the government's support of the German takeover.

"After a agelong play of uncertainty, we tin corroborate that we volition put importantly successful The Telegraph's editorial excellence and planetary growth," Axel Springer main enforcement Mathias Döpfner said successful a connection Tuesday.

"The Telegraph volition articulation a planetary web committed to autarkic reporting portion retaining its chiseled editorial dependable and British identity."

An planetary pursuit of The Telegraph stretches backmost astir 3 years.

RedBird IMI, a associated task betwixt US concern steadfast RedBird Capital and Abu Dhabi's International Media Investments, had struck a woody for the rubric successful precocious 2023.

However, the erstwhile UK authorities triggered a swift resale implicit freedom-of-speech concerns owing to Abu Dhabi's property censorship record.

RedBird past pursued the takeover nether a revised structure, but abruptly dropped its bid successful precocious 2025.

The Daily Mail past agreed a £500-million (€575 million) woody with US-Emirati consortium RedBird IMI successful November for the purchase.

Amid the takeover saga, the erstwhile Conservative authorities besides amended merger laws to barroom overseas states from controlling British newspapers.