Telegraph Newspaper to Be Sold to Private Equity Firm RedBird Capital

Ownership of The Daily Telegraph, the storied British newspaper long considered close to the country’s Conservative Party, is poised to change — again.

RedBird Capital Partners, an American investment firm, said on Friday that it had reached an agreement in principle to buy control of the newspaper’s parent company, Telegraph Media Group, at a valuation of 500 million pounds, or about $675 million.

Friday’s deal is the latest twist in a long-running takeover drama for The Telegraph, which for much of its 170-year history has been considered a house organ of sorts for Britain’s Conservative Party. (Among its nicknames is The Torygraph.)

RedBird had already bought control of the newspaper via a joint venture with International Media Investments, a fund controlled by a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family. Under that plan, the newspaper would have been overseen by Jeff Zucker, the former president of CNN.

But that deal was blocked in 2023 after an outcry in Parliament over foreign state ownership of British media assets. Last year, the Conservative-led government passed a law barring foreign state investors from owning British newspapers.

The joint venture, known as RedBird IMI, retained control of The Telegraph while soliciting other bids.