The publisher of the Daily Mail has agreed a £500m deal to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, in a move set to reshape Britain’s right-leaning media landscape and trigger intense regulatory scrutiny.
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), controlled by Lord Rothermere, said it has entered an exclusivity period with RedBird IMI – a joint venture between US firm RedBird Capital and Abu Dhabi-backed IMI – to acquire Telegraph Media Group.
The transaction, which follows the collapse of RedBird’s own takeover attempt last week, still requires approval from Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, as well as reviews by Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority under new rules on foreign state influence in media.
A spokesperson for Nandy said she would “review any new buyer acquiring the Telegraph in line with the public interest and foreign state influence media mergers regimes”. The government recently capped foreign sovereign ownership of UK news outlets at 15%, effectively blocking Abu Dhabi-controlled bids.
DMGT stressed that the deal involves no foreign state capital and pledged that the Telegraph would remain editorially independent from its other titles, which include the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Metro, the i and New Scientist. “Our case for approval is compelling,” the group said.
Lord Rothermere hailed the Telegraph as “Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet” and promised “much-needed certainty and confidence” for staff after more than two years of ownership turmoil. “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,” he said.
The Telegraph has been in limbo since 2023, when lenders seized control from the Barclay family over unpaid debts and later sold the business to RedBird IMI via a debt-repayment deal. Political and industry backlash over Abu Dhabi’s role, plus new legislation, ultimately forced RedBird to abandon its plan to take full ownership.
In Parliament, Dame Caroline Dineage, chair of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said she was “keen to see a resolution” after years of uncertainty but warned that “media plurality” must not be overlooked. Liberal Democrat peer Chris Fox urged regulators to “rigorously examine” the deal to avoid “an even more unbalanced media market”.
If approved, the acquisition will unite two of the UK’s most influential Conservative-leaning newspapers under one corporate roof, cementing DMGT as a dominant force in British print and online news ahead of the next general election.
