Newspapers are often acquired to gain stature and political clout, for consolidation and synergy reasons, and even to solve regulatory hurdles.
These could all be the cases for Britain’s Rothermere family, who plans to add competing conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph to their Daily Mail portfolio.
Jonathan Harmsworth (aka Viscount Rothermere), chairman of the Daily Mail, is acquiring The Daily Telegraph for the equivalent of US$655 million, after the U.K. government blocked approval of an earlier attempt by RedBird IMI — a joint venture between U.S. firm RedBird Capital and Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments — to acquire the Telegraph, citing concerns over foreign state ownership of British media.
Previously, RedBird IMI tried unsuccessfully to sell the Telegraph to David Efune of the New York Sun.
Leave A Comment