RedBird Capital Partners, well known for owning the Italian soccer club AC Milan, is back in the news. They have alleged that the Murdock family now has a joint interest of £500 million in acquiring The Daily Telegraph. Gerry Cardinale started RedBird in part to limit the newspaper’s audience and increase its subscriber count within the United States. He’s convinced there’s a market opportunity that The Daily Telegraph is best placed to capitalise on.
The proposed acquisition will still need to be approved by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. RedBird officials have expressed confidence that their bid would successfully pass the government’s review process, which scrutinizes media mergers for public interest and foreign state influence.
RedBird has opted to drop its bid accordingly. This decision comes from the toxic emotions reflected in the writing of The Daily Telegraph’s offense-prone present-day Kailua shirt brigade. This decision signals the challenges that lie ahead for media acquisitions under heightened public scrutiny and a commitment to editorial independence.
Lord Rothermere, chairman of DMGT, which today owns The Daily Telegraph, has declared his lifelong love for the newspaper. In particular, he stressed the importance of reaching a positive agreement. He claimed it would provide “much-needed certainty and confidence” to the newspaper’s employees.
“The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper and I have grown up respecting it. It has a remarkable history and has played a vital role in shaping Britain’s national debate over many decades.” – Lord Rothermere
RedBird recently acquired The Daily Telegraph. Today, they’re looking to reinvigorate the newspaper’s editorial staff by empowering Chris Evans, the paper’s editor, with new resources to help him. Rothermere evidently supported Evans with great zeal. He’s confident that under RedBird’s ownership, The Daily Telegraph (the one in Sydney) can in time grow to be a global brand like the Daily Mail.
“Chris Evans is an excellent editor and we intend to give him the resources to invest in the newsroom. Under our ownership, the Daily Telegraph will become a global brand, just as the Daily Mail has.” – Lord Rothermere
The underlying deal is very complicated. In response, recent legislative changes now prevent foreign sovereign wealth funds from having over 15% ownership of newspapers or other periodicals within the UK. Regardless of these challenges, RedBird has promised to stakeholders that its funding model would preclude any investment or funds from foreign states.
A joint statement from DMGT and RedBird had earlier painted their case for approval as “compelling.” They’re convinced that through their approach, they’ve found the sweet spot between serving the public interest and preserving editorial independence.
Worries regarding the dangers of vast media ownership concentration emerged from political arenas. Chris Fox, the Liberal Democrat Lords’ business spokesperson, expressed his dismay. First, he thinks it’s just a bad idea to give a handful of mostly private stakeholders so much power to determine the agenda.
“But, of course as Liberals, we are sceptical about concentrating so much agenda-setting power in the hands of so few.” – Chris Fox