Categories: OLD Media Moves

Axel Springer buys 88 percent of Business Insider for $343 million

German media company Axel Springer SE agreed to buy an 88 percent stake in Business Insider Inc. for $343 million, reports Kenneth Wong of Bloomberg News.

Wong writes, “Axel Springer already owns a 9 percent stake in New York-based Business Insider, which runs the businessinsider.com website with 76 million monthly unique visitors, Berlin-based Springer said in a statement Tuesday. The deal is subject to approval by antitrust authorities.

“Business Insider, co-founded in 2007 by current Chief Executive Officer Henry Blodget as a Web-only business publication, now has seven additional editions outside the U.S., including in the U.K, Australia and Singapore. In July, it introduced a new tech-focused standalone website called Tech Insider. Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos is also an investor in Business Insider after leading a group of investors who bought a $5 million stake in 2013.

“‘The transaction is an essential component of Axel Springer’s strategy to grow with digital journalistic offerings in English-language geographies,’ Springer said in its statement.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.