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Politico owner Axel Springer and private equity group KKR have agreed a €13.5bn deal to break up the company, splitting the profitable classified advertising business from its media division.
The plan, first reported by the Financial Times in July, was approved on Thursday by the company’s supervisory board.
Under the break-up, the classified ads business, which includes the jobs platform StepStone and real estate ads unit Aviv, is valued at €10bn.
The media division, owner of the German newspapers Bild and Die Welt as well as the US news sites Politico and Insider, is valued at €3.5bn, according to people close to the deal.
KKR will exit the media division, allowing Mathias Döpfner, Axel Springer’s 61-year-old chief executive and one of its biggest shareholders, to cement his control over the new business and pursue his ambitions to expand in English-language media.
He and Friede Springer, widow of the company’s founder, will together hold close to 98 per cent of the media division.
KKR and its partner the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will become the majority owner of the classifieds business.
This is a developing story
