Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird IMI, the new Abu Dhabi-backed owner of All3Media, has pulled out of its deal to buy the UK’s Daily Telegraph following press freedom concerns.
RedBird IMI will now have to effectively sell the Telegraph as it had already taken control of the British paper plus Spectator Magazine in December when it repaid owner the Barclay family’s debts, including a £600M ($753M) loan against the titles.
“RedBird IMI has today confirmed that it intends to withdraw from its proposed acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group and proceed with a sale,” a RedBird IMI spokesperson told Reuters. “We have held constructive conversations with the government about ensuring a smooth and orderly sale for both titles.”
The move comes months after RedBird IMI was prevented from bringing the deal home due to regulatory roadblocks amid concern at the upper echelons of UK government around press freedom. The acquisition was dealt a final blow last month when the UK brought in a law to stop foreign governments owning newspapers, coming after RedBird IMI had proposed a plan whereby it would have incorporated a new UK holding company which would own the Telegraph titles and Spectator magazine. This did not do enough to bend the government’s will.
One potential buyer could now be GB News co-owner Paul Marshall, who had also bid for the paper alongside a consortium of investors including U.S. billionaire Ken Griffin.
UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, who had virulently opposed the deal, said: “Throughout this process I have raised concerns about the potential impact of this deal on free expression and accurate presentation of news, and I took steps to ensure that media freedom was protected while there was an investigation into those concerns. I will now allow the parties to conduct an orderly transition and I will monitor the outcome with a view to taking any further regulatory action as required under the Enterprise Act.”
She added that free press “is a cornerstone of [UK] democracy, and we cannot take it for granted. That is why I used my powers as Culture Secretary to investigate this deal.”
RedBird IMI recently bought The Traitors and The Tourist super-indie All3Media for £1.15B ($1.45B) and that deal is being rubberstamped by regulators, although there is no opposition in the vein of The Telegraph.
Zucker and Cardinale’s Redbird IMI is 75%-owned by Abu Dhabi and was formed in 2022. RedBird Capital, which owns the other share, has a roster including Skydance Media, the YES Network, and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity. RedBird also teamed with Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia to buy the XFL out of bankruptcy.
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