This is a new turning point in the turbulent history of the Axel Springer media group. Four years after leaving the stock exchange to join the private equity fund KKR, the German publishing house announced on Thursday 19 September a radical new transformation of its activities. The group is split into two: on the one hand, the newspaper titles (image, The worldas well as the sites political AND Insider), on the other hand, digital and classified advertising activities, mostly sold to KKR and the Canadian pension fund CPPIB. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025. The company is valued at 13.5 billion euros.
The move, which has been mentioned in the press for several months, is no less spectacular. Since the mid-2000s, in anticipation of the challenges of digital financing for the press, Axel Springer has specialised in online advertising platforms. As these activities previously associated with newspapers threatened to slip away, snatched up by specialised digital players, the German group pursued a broad policy of acquiring sites throughout Europe for more than ten years. The result was a broad portfolio of digital platforms, such as the job site Stepstone and real estate advertising activities grouped under the name AVIV, which includes the French SeLoger and the German Immowelt.
These digital platforms will therefore be sold primarily to KKR and CPPIB. Axel Springer will however retain a share, which could amount to 15%, the German press notes. KKR and CPPIB intend to list this portfolio of digital activities on the stock market. In the meantime, the valuation of the German group emerges from the negotiations at 13.5 billion euros, compared to 6.8 billion at the time of its IPO in 2020. Of this sum, the activity linked to digital platforms is valued at 10 billion euros, the media activity at 3.5 billion. Axel Springer reduced its media outflows from the operation with a turnover reduced to 2.2 billion euros, without debt, against almost 4 billion in 2023. The group is essentially returning to its original vocation, media production, and once again seems to believe that the power of paid journalistic content alone can guarantee the sustainability of the company.
98% owned by two individuals
Listed between 1985 and 2020, Axel Springer has become a family business, 98% owned by two private individuals: its CEO, Mathias Döpfner, who has been at the helm of the company since 2002, and the Springer family, including Friede Springer, 82, the widow of the group’s founder. Freed from their investors, they now have full power over the fate of the press group. In a press release, Axel Springer said it wanted to focus on “its most important mission: to shape the future of independent journalism, powered by artificial intelligence.” Supports development projects in the Anglo-Saxon market. Its attempts to buy British newspapers Financial Times AND The times failed, but has significantly strengthened its presence in the United States over the past ten years.
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