German media group Axel Springer plans to sell off most of its digital classifieds business to US and Canadian investors, German business daily Handelsblatt reported Monday.
It would keep its media interests but sell the classified adverts interests to US private equity firm KKR and a Canadian pension fund, the daily reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plan.
“The breakup of the media group Axel Springer has been confirmed,” it wrote, confirming a Financial Times report that the deal would value the whole company at 13.5 billion euros ($15 billion).
Axel Springer and KKR declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
The media giant’s billionaire CEO Mathias Doepfner and the Springer family will retain the legacy media business, Handelsblatt reported, adding that the plan had been discussed in Springer’s supervisory board for some time.
Springer plans to maintain control of German mass-circulation tabloid Bild, Die Welt daily, political news site Politico and Business Insider under the deal to be signed by the end of the year.
The classifieds business includes the job portal StepStone and the Aviv Group with real estate portals such as Seloger in France and Immowelt in Germany.
The report said the media business is valued at 3.5 billion euros and the digital classifieds business at 10 billion euros.
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