Thursday, August 26, 2021
Record sum for “Politico”
Springer buys US news company
After Springer had held shares in the American company for a long time, the group is now taking over the American media company “Politico” completely. The group did not provide any information about the takeover amount, but industry experts consider it to be a record.
The media group Axel Springer buys the US news company Politico and with it its longstanding business partner. The Berlin publisher “Bild” and “Welt” announced that an agreement was signed with Politico founder Robert Allbritton to acquire Politico and the news website Protocol, which specializes in the technology sector. As part of this transaction, Springer will also take over the remaining 50 percent of the joint venture Politico Europe.
See the takeover as a great opportunity for growth: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the Springer Group
(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)
“The potential is generally huge. We are convinced that we have acquired the company at an attractive price,” said Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, the “Handelsblatt”, and spoke of a record amount. According to media reports, this would mean a purchase price of at least 630 million euros. Springer is said to have paid that much for its most expensive takeover to date, the SeLoger real estate portal.
Springer and Politico have been running the media platform Politico Europe, headquartered in Brussels, in a joint venture since 2014. With annual double-digit growth, Politico Europe achieved profitability in 2019. From autumn, Jamil Anderlini will be the new editor-in-chief of the 100-person newsroom.
Politico was founded in 2007 and now has more than 700 employees in the USA and Europe. For Springer, the USA, along with Germany and Poland, is the core market for new investments in the media sector. Since the entry of the US financial investor KKR, the Berliners have been aiming for growth, also through acquisitions. The corona crisis had slowed the group down a bit.
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