It appears the bid for The Spectator and Th Telegraph from UAE-backed consortium Redbird IMI may have been quashed once and for all. At least in its current structure. (Full disclosure: I have contributed to both the publications involved in the bid.)
Sky News‘s Mark Kleinman tweeted that changes to the law are afoot that will impact the takeover.
Revealed: Lord Parkinson, the culture minister, will announce today that the government has decided to amend the Enterprise Act (via the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill) to ban foreign states from having ownership, influence or control of British newspapers…
— Mark Kleinman (@MarkKleinmanSky) March 13, 2024
3/3…and, as I understand it, hand the Competition and Markets Authority more powers to scrutinise future such deals affecting British national media assets of this type. Attention now will focus on RedBird IMI's next move given it owns the call option to acquire the newspapers.
— Mark Kleinman (@MarkKleinmanSky) March 13, 2024
The Redbird IMI bid is fronted by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker. It has been controversial from the outset due to the involvement of the Gulf state. As explained in The Guardian, there is plenty of discomfort amongst Conservative politicians about the takeover and members of the House of Lords have started to take action:
This week, Lady Stowell, the Tory chair of the Lords communications and digital committee, tabled an amendment to the digital markets bill that would give parliament a veto on foreign governments taking over UK media organisations. Her amendment will face a vote on Wednesday. More than 100 MPs led by the former minister Robert Jenrick have supported the amendment.
There are reports that both News UK and the owners of the Daily Mail are interested in taking over The Telegraph and The Spectator. The name of GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall is also in the mix. Both publications are prestigious and influential titles on the right of British politics. The decision over their final destination is still some way away.