Telegraph’s £575m takeover by German group completed

The European media group Axel Springer has completed its £575m takeover of the Telegraph , ending three tumultuous years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 172-year-old titles. The Germany-headquartered company, which gazumped the owner of the Daily Mail by tabling a blockbuster offer at the 11th hour, said it had now received all regulatory approvals in the UK, Ireland and Austria to take full control of Telegraph Media Group (TMG). “Today is a day we have worked towards for a long time, and one we will always remember,” said Mathias Döpfner, its chief executive and controlling shareholder. “Axel Springer and the Telegraph share strong commitments to freedom, values, a tradition of embracing and pioneering technological change, and an entrepreneurial will to actively shape the future.” The 63-year-old, who has run Axel Springer since 2002, lost out on a previous attempt to buy TMG in 2004 when he was beaten by the Barclay brothers’ £665m offer . He was also pipped by an 11th-hour £844m bid from Nikkei, Japan’s largest media group, to buy the Financial Times in 2015. The Telegraph will join a stable of media brands including the German titles Bild, Europe’s biggest selling newspaper, and Die Welt, as well as the digital outlets Politico and Business Insider. Döpfner has said that he intends to leverage his digital assets to push the Telegraph’s digital transformation and expand into the US. …