Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird IMI, the new Abu Dhabi-backed owner of All3Media, has backed out of its deal to buy Britain’s Daily Telegraph due to press freedom concerns.
RedBird IMI now effectively has to sell the Telegraph, having already taken control of the British newspaper plus Spectator Magazine in December when it paid off the debts of the Barclay family, which owns it, including a 600 million pound ($753 million) loan. for the titles, paid back.
“RedBird IMI confirmed today that it intends to withdraw from the proposed acquisition of Telegraph Media Group and proceed with the sale,” a RedBird IMI spokesman told Reuters. “We have held constructive discussions with the government to ensure a smooth and orderly sale of both titles.”
The move comes months after RedBird IMI was prevented from pushing through the deal due to regulatory obstacles and concerns from the upper echelons of the British government about press freedom. The takeover was dealt a final blow last month when the UK passed a law banning foreign governments from owning newspapers after RedBird IMI proposed a plan that would see the creation of a new UK holding company that would own the Telegraph titles and would own the Spectator magazine. This was not enough to bend the will of the government.
A potential buyer could now be GB News co-owner Paul Marshall, who also made a bid for the newspaper along with a consortium of investors including US billionaire Ken Griffin.
British Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, who has spoken out strongly against the agreement, said: “Throughout this process I have raised concerns about the potential impact of this agreement on freedom of expression and accurate news reporting and have taken action to ensure that the Media freedom is protected.” while there was an investigation into these concerns. I will now allow the parties to undertake an orderly transition and I will monitor the outcome to take further regulatory action under the Enterprise Act.”
She added that the free press “is a cornerstone of [UK] Democracy, and we cannot take it for granted. That’s why I used my powers as culture minister to investigate this deal.”
RedBird IMI was recently purchased The traitors And The tourist Super-indie All3Media for 1.15 billion pounds ($1.45 billion) and that deal is getting the blessing of regulators, although there is no opposition as The Telegraph understands.
Zucker and Cardinale’s Redbird IMI is 75% owned by Abu Dhabi and was founded in 2022. RedBird Capital, which owns the other stake, has Skydance Media, the YES Network and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity, among others. RedBird also teamed up with Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia to buy the XFL out of bankruptcy.