Category Archives: Telegraph Media Group

UAE-backed bid for Telegraph group dealt fatal blow by new legislation

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Proposed law bans foreign states and government officials from holding direct stakes in UK newspapers

The UAE-backed bid for the Telegraph group appears to be dead in the water after the UK published proposed laws that ban foreign states or government officials from holding any direct stakes in newspaper assets.

Foreign states and government officials will be banned from holding any direct stakes in newspaper assets – effectively dealing a death blow to the £600m bid for the Telegraph group from RedBird IMI, a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates.

The head of a foreign state.

A foreign government.

Authorities responsible for administering the affairs of an area within a foreign country.

Governing political parties.

Officers of governing political parties.

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Telegraph takeover: UK planning new laws to prevent foreign states owning assets

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New legislation could thwart planned £600m purchase of media group by UAE-backed consortium

The UK government plans to introduce legislation that would prevent foreign governments owning UK newspapers and news magazines in a significant move that could scupper the planned £600m sale of the Telegraph to a United Arab Emirates-backed consortium.

RedBird IMI – a partnership between a fund backed by the UAE’s vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and a privately owned US investment firm – is seeking to acquire one of the UK’s most influential newspaper groups.

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Sunak urges right-leaning voters to unite to keep Starmer out of No 10

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Prime minister makes appeal after heavy byelection losses to Labour and support lost to Reform UK

Rishi Sunak has called on British conservatives to “come together” after two heavy byelection losses to Labour.

The loss of votes to Labour and an emboldened Reform UK party came as a twin blow to the prime minister, and were just the latest in a series of byelection defeats for Sunak.

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Telegraph suitor to buy Traitors and Fleabag maker All3Media for £1.15bn

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RedBird IMI, which is majority-owned by the UAE vice-president, has invested in five media firms since its launch a year ago

The Abu Dhabi-backed company that is trying to take over the Telegraph newspapers has announced a £1.15bn deal to buy the production company behind Fleabag and the Traitors.

Under the deal, RedBird IMI, which is headed by the former CNN president Jeff Zucker, will take over London-based All3Media with the agreement of its owners Warner Bros, Discovery and Liberty Global.

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Telegraph takeover decision put back by fresh inquiry into Barclay family’s UAE-backed deal

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Regulators’ reports on public interest risk now due on 11 March after late change in consortium’s structure prompts further review

A second investigation has been launched into the Barclay family’s deal to transfer control of the Telegraph newspaper group, pushing the deadline for regulators’ reports on the public interest threat it poses by more than six weeks.

The UK government moved swiftly to order the second watchdog inquiry after the Barclays’ UAE-backed consortium partner revealed a last-minute corporate structure change.

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YouGov called on to confirm who commissioned poll on Sunak defeat

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British Polling Council asks pollsters if there are documents showing who commissioned controversial surveys

The British Polling Council (BPC) is looking into controversial YouGov polling used by Conservative plotters to call for Rishi Sunak to be ousted.

The two polls, which YouGov said were commissioned by a mysterious group called the Conservative Britain Alliance with Tory peer David Frost acting as the intermediary, caused shock waves in Westminster when they were published in the Daily Telegraph last week.

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The Telegraph hopes to reshape Tory party in its own image

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Amid the paper’s own crises, the intent seems clear: a new leader to lower taxes and crack down on immigration

The Daily Telegraph has long been known as the Conservatives’ de facto house journal. But, with its central role in recent manoeuvrings to undermine Rishi Sunak, it seems the paper is taking this a step further, and hopes to reshape the party in its ideological image.

In the past 10 days, the Telegraph – itself experiencing flux with a takeover looming – has published not just a withering comment piece from a Tory MP calling for Sunak to go, but detailed polling seeking to explain why it would be better for the party if he did.

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MPs add to pressure on ministers to vet Barclay family’s Telegraph offer

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Call for national security law to be used to investigate proposed deal involving consortium backed by UAE

A group of MPs including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith have asked ministers to use national security law to investigate the Barclay family’s proposed deal to give control of the Telegraph to a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates.

The group of 18 MPs, which also includes Alicia Kearns, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, have written to the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, arguing that the proposed deal poses a “very real potential national security threat”.

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UK minister intends to refer Barclay family’s offer for Telegraph to Ofcom

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Government ‘minded to’ issue intervention notice to call in regulator on public interest grounds

The culture secretary intends to ask the media watchdog to examine the Barclay family’s proposed deal to hand control of the Telegraph and the Spectator magazine to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium.

Lucy Frazer said on Wednesday she was “minded to” call in Ofcom to look at the investment fund’s plans to take over the titles in exchange for repaying £1.15bn of the family’s debts to Lloyds Banking Group.

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Sale of Telegraph newspapers and Spectator kicks off

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Last-ditch attempt by Barclay family to shut down auction with blockbuster £1bn offer thwarted

The sale of the Telegraph newspapers and the Spectator has kicked off, thwarting a last-ditch attempt by the Barclay family to shut down the auction with a blockbuster £1bn offer.

On Friday morning, the boards of the parent companies of Telegraph Media Group (TMG), the parent company of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and the Spectator said that the advisers Goldman Sachs had launched a sales process for each of the businesses.

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‘It’s crunch time’: GB News bosses meet to avert more censure after Ofcom inquiries

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Appointment to board of banker who ran rightwing social media platform Parler suggests channel will not turn its back on radical libertarianism

The leadership of the rightwing TV channel GB News is trying urgently to avert fresh public censure following the Laurence Fox and Dan Wootton debacle, the Observer has learned.

Under scrutiny are a number of incidents, including last week’s crude, on-air attack on the journalist Ava Evans by the actor and pundit Fox, and Friday’s interview of Suella Braverman, the home secretary, conducted by the deputy chair of her own party, the Conservative MP Lee Anderson.

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Telegraph Media Group says it will soon reach 1m paying subscribers

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Acquisition of Chelsea Magazine Company titles bumps up figures as newspaper group seeks new owner

The Telegraph’s parent company has insisted it will soon have a million paying subscribers – aided by the decision to buy Classic Boat magazine.

Telegraph Media Group is in the early stages of seeking a new owner after banks wrestled control of the newspaper from the Barclay family early this year.

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‘Former estate agents’: the strange life of the Barclay twins

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Losing Telegraph newspapers will not turn remaining twin Frederick Barclay into a pauper, but it’s a bitter end to brothers’ empire-building

From humble beginnings growing up in a west London house so close to the railway line the window frames rattled when a train passed, the Barclay twins, Frederick and David, became an extraordinary, energetic and eccentric power couple.

They built an empire of glitzy hotels and made many millions in shipping and retail before plunging into the world of newspapers but – largely – eschewed the trappings of life in the London fast lane to live in strange isolation in a sprawling mansion on a small rocky island just off the French coast.

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Sinéad O’Connor retracts retirement announcement

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The Irish musician said her statement, made on 5 June, was a ‘kneejerk reaction’ against the UK and Irish media’s ‘constant abuse and invalidation’ of her mental health

Sinéad O’Connor has retracted her announcement, made over the weekend, that she would retire from music and live performance.

In a new statement posted to Twitter, the Irish musician explained to fans that she had felt “badly triggered” by a series of interviews regarding her new memoir, Rememberings, in which she writes of surviving physical and psychological abuse.

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Telegraph apologises and pays damages to Melania Trump

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British newspaper pulls article peppered with false claims about US first lady from its site

The Daily Telegraph has paid “substantial damages” to Melania Trump and apologised “unreservedly” to the US first lady after making a number of false claims about her life in an article.

The claims were made in a story entitled The mystery of Melania, which ran on the cover of last Saturday’s Telegraph magazine, but the newspaper has now said it included a number of errors about Donald Trump’s wife which should not have been published.

The piece promised to tell the truth on what it described as the “most private and enigmatic” of presidential wives after interviews with “White House insiders, Slovenian school friends and photographers”.

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