Just two months ago, Axel Springer announced the largest company acquisition in its history. The Berliners bought Politico – allegedly for a billion dollars. The US media company specializes in newsletters; the subscribers from politics and business pay a lot of money for it. Springer’s aim is to become a major player in the USA too, and that includes the news portal Business Insider. An impeccable reputation is important here, so the revelations of the are painful New York Times particularly.
Springer wants to expand vigorously, especially since the financial investor KKR got on board two years ago. The New York company, which has stakes in many companies around the world, acquired around half of the shares in the media company two years ago. The other half belongs to the publisher’s heir Friede Springer and CEO Mathias Döpfner. Springer gives, among other things image and world out, the channel Bild-TV was launched in the summer. There is also a whole range of online activities, for example in the real estate sector or on job exchanges.
The company employs a total of 16,000 people, including 9,000 in the media sector, including 2,400 journalists. This number is expected to rise to more than 3,000 within the next five years. Again and again there is speculation that Springer could be split up into a media part and one for all other internet businesses. Springer board member Jan Bayer recently said: “There are very different considerations.”