Politico sells to German publishing giant Axel Springer in deal reportedly worth $1 billion

[George II]

Source: CNBC

PUBLISHED THU, AUG 26 20218:48 AM EDT

German publisher Axel Springer announced Thursday that it plans to acquire digital media site Politico. The companies did not disclose a price for the deal, but early reports value it at about $1 billion.

Spokespeople for Axel Springer and Politico were not immediately available to comment on the valuation.

The acquisition grows the publishing group’s portfolio in the U.S. further, adding to its ownership of Insider and Morning Brew. Axel Springer is the German publishing giant behind major news outlets like Bild and Die Welt in the country. It recently went private and continues to invest in U.S. digital media companies.

Axel Springer and Politico were already in a joint venture partnership since 2014, when Politico Europe launched, according to a press release. That news site has been profitable since 2019, the announcement said.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/26/axel-springer-to-buy-politico.html

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Axel Springer is a conservative media company. They also own Bild, which is considered Germany's version of Fox News.

[SheltieLover]

1. Why are liberal ultra wealthy not buying up media outlets?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. 2002

or whenever it was around $8, libs could have bought Yahoo!

The idea went nowhere. No gas in the tank. I don't think there's been a grass roots effort aimed at a media company since Jesse Helms tried to takeover CBS so he could fire Dan Rather. And that - despite conservative, fundamentalist numbers and money - flopped too. Although CBS had to bring in a white knight.

[SheltieLover]

5. Critical error, imo

Psy ops work.

[EYESORE 9001]

2. Can we blacklist Politico as a news source now?

Shoulda been done a long time ago IMO.

[PortTack]

10. Thank you..totally agree!

[Raster]

14. Tiger Beat on the Potomac.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. In industry after industry, consolidation that builds concentration is occurring

I follow, or stumbled upon, a few products over the years. Often there are a handful of brands you've heard of, all owned by the same 2 or 3 conglomerates, along with varying degrees of vertical integration.

Shoes, underwear and lingerie, power equipment (mowers, chain saws, trimmers and the like), household refrigeration appliances to name a few. Many, many brands for products you have heard of are owned by brands of brands - companies that stockpile the brands and tweak them for profit. Often they strip off the value and liquidate the carcass, sometimes loading them with debt after extracting the cash. This is what runs our daily lives.

Media ownership? Freedom is being stripped from our souls, defined and shelved where we cannot reach it. We are irrelevant. These media conglomerates should be examined for antitrust implications.

[not fooled]

17. So important

the impact of consolidation on our daily lives (less actual choice, more $$$$$) is staggering, yet little acknowledged or understood, let alone counteracted.

Yeah, so many formerly great, high quality, brands are now a joke. The nation as a whole certainly doesn't benefit from what's happened.

[samnsara]

6. welp wont be reading THAT site much longer!

[genxlib]

7. Call me cynical

In order for an online media source to be worth a billion dollars, it would have to generate profits in the tens of millions of dollars a year,

Am I the only one that believes that it isn't really worth that much?

Which leads to the obvious conclusion that its actual "value" is in content rather than revenue. When it can be used to further conservative causes, it has value to an investor. Which tells me a lot about the state of media.

[Phil the Kilibuster]

8. Wonderful

Yet another American news outlet in foreign hands! What's next, CNN to a Chinese consortium?

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Reuters now sharing parts with Tass

or something like that.

You see, we were always lied to. They told us the Soviets were the left, but the more I think about it, they were actually the far right, just not in the sense that we would think of the right as conservative, capitalist, private property, free market. They were every bit controlled from the top as we were, but the top elites exploited the State-owned enterprises while telling the masses it was a cooperative, communist regime. Now the elites own the State-owned enterprises spun off into capitalism, just like here but with less public ownership by the masses.

[Ford_Prefect]

9. There goes the neighborhood...

[Historic NY]

12. Will it be more right wing than it is now

[George II]

13. Question is, CAN it be more right wing than it is now?

[Historic NY]

16. Oh so true...

I love to f--k with them on twitter.

[awesomerwb1]

15. LOL what a ripoff

But.....I guess it's true when they say the value of something is what someone's willing to pay for it.

$1B for Politico is insane. Joke of a "publication".

[pwb]

18. I hope he shuts it down.

It is mostly a menace to anything good. IMO.

[Dawson Leery]

19. What makes an online specialty rag worth a billion dollars?

[Qutzupalotl]

20. K&R