Daily Mail owner will buy The Telegraph, consolidating right-leaning media in Britain

LONDON — The owner of The Daily Telegraph, a British media outlet, said Saturday it was in advanced talks to sell itself to a major rival, a move that would further consolidate the country’s news media.

Telegraph Media Group said it was finalizing terms of a deal to be sold to DMGT, the owner of The Daily Mail, the country’s biggest newspaper by circulation, for 500 million pounds ($655 million).

The talks came a little over a week after The Telegraph said a previous suitor, American investment firm RedBird Capital Partners, had walked away from its own 500 million pound takeover bid.

“The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper, and I have grown up respecting it,” Jonathan Rothermere, the chair of DMGT and a scion of its founding family, said in a statement. “It has a remarkable history and has played a vital role in shaping Britain’s national debate over many decades.”

A takeover by DMGT could face intense government scrutiny, the prospects of which were reported to have prompted RedBird’s exit.

The Telegraph and The Mail are two of Britain’s largest news outlets and are fixtures of the political right. Uniting them would create a sizable media giant in Britain — DMGT also owns the Metro, The i Paper and the New Scientist — that would draw a close look from antitrust regulators.

In a statement, DMGT said it was “confident any regulatory processes can be concluded swiftly and positively, as the case for approving the acquisition is compelling.”

The proposed sale of The Telegraph to DMGT is the latest effort to combine British media outlets. Earlier this month, Comcast, the American owner of the broadcaster Sky, said it was in talks to buy the broadcast business of ITV for about 2 billion pounds.

The Telegraph has been in limbo for years over its ownership. Founded in 1855, the paper was known for most of its history for its right-leaning politics and support of the Conservative Party. (Among its nicknames is “The Torygraph.”)

RedBird had lent money to the newspaper’s former owners, acquiring control of the company in 2023 via a joint venture with International Media Investments, a fund controlled by a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family.