US investment Firm RedBird to buy Telegraph newspaper
A consortium led by US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners has agreed to buy the publisher of the United Kingdom's 170-year-old Daily Telegraph newspaper for about $674m (500 million pounds).
Redbird said it has reached an agreement in principle to become controlling owner of the Telegraph Media Group, ending a lengthy takeover saga for the conservative-leaning newspaper on Friday.
Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird, said the sale 'marks the start of a new era for The Telegraph as we look to grow the brand in the UK and internationally, invest in its technology and expand its subscriber base'.
The Telegraph group, previously owned by the UK's Barclay family, was put up for sale two years ago to help pay off the family's debts. It publishes the Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and weekly newsmagazine The Spectator, which all are closely allied to the UK's Conservative Party.
In 2023, there was an offer to buy the publications from RedBird IMI, a consortium backed by RedBird Capital Partners and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family and the vice president of the United Arab Emirates.
But the consortium pulled out last year following strong opposition from the UK government, which launched legislation to block foreign state ownership of the British press.
Under the deal, Abu Dhabi's IMI will take a minority stake of not more than 15 percent in the Telegraph as a member of the consortium. The sale must be approved by British regulators.
RedBird has investments in football team AC Milan, the parent company of Liverpool football club and film production company Skydance.
Telegraph Media Group chief executive Anna Jones said that 'RedBird Capital Partners have exciting growth plans that build on our success — and will unlock our full potential across the breadth of our business.'
The Spectator was sold in September to British hedge fund investor Paul Marshall.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UK sanctions Israeli ministers for 'inciting violence'
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy says the UK has sanctioned far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for inciting violence against Palestinians.
Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UK MPs react to report alleging David Cameron ‘threatened' ICC withdrawal
Several United Kingdom lawmakers have criticised the previous government over allegations in a recent media report that former Foreign Secretary David Cameron 'privately threatened' to defund and withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The report, published on Monday by the UK-based outlet Middle East Eye (MEE), cited sources with knowledge of a phone call Cameron allegedly made to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on April 23, 2024, after he had given advance notice of his intention to apply for the warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. MEE's report cited unnamed sources, including former staff in Khan's office, and had seen minutes of the conversation, claiming that Cameron warned the arrest warrants, which were issued in November that year, would be – in quotes reported by the sources – tantamount to 'dropping a hydrogen bomb', warning that if the ICC went ahead, the UK would 'defund the court and withdraw from the Rome Statute'. Khan reportedly stood his ground, with sources telling MEE that he said afterwards that he did not like 'being pressurised'. 'I won't say if it rises to blackmail – I don't like being threatened,' he reportedly said, adding that the government was 'debasing' the UK with its clear attack on the independence of the court and the rule of international law. Neither Khan nor Cameron, who was prime minister between 2010 and 2016, and now sits in the House of Lords as a life peer, has commented on the report. Following the report's publication, Labour Party MP Zarah Sultana said on X that Cameron 'and every UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel's genocide in Gaza' should be National Party MP Chris Law said the allegations were 'shocking', but added the country was 'not seeing much better under Labour'.Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP, called for an 'independent inquiry into the UK's role in the Gaza genocide'.Zack Polanski, the deputy leader of the Green Party, was cited by MEE as saying: 'It's been clear for all to see that both the former and current government have stood with the oppressors, not the marginalised.' When the ICC applied for the arrest warrants in May last year, the previous Conservative Party government, a strong backer of Israel, decried the move as 'not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in'. In July, the new Labour government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, dropped the previous Rishi Sunak-led government's bid to challenge the ICC's power to seek the warrants, which were issued for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders in November.
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US condemns multi-nation sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers
NewsFeed US condemns multi-nation sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers The UK, Australia, Canada, Norway and New Zealand imposed sanctions on Israeli far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, over their incitement of violence against Palestinians. The US criticised the move as 'unhelpful' to Gaza ceasefire efforts.
