German publishing giant Axel Springer said Thursday it has struck a deal to buy the US-based, politics-focused news site Politico. The companies didn’t disclose a sale price, but reports have valued the deal at about $1 billion.
Reports of a potential deal leaked out earlier this month. Politico is the latest in a slew of US acquisitions for Axel Springer, which bought Business Insider in 2015 and newsletter publisher Morning Brew last year.
The Berlin-based publisher is not new to Politico’s business. Axel Springer teamed up with the site in 2014 to launch its European edition the following year in a 50-50 joint venture. That division is based in Brussels with offices across Europe. According to Thursday’s press release, that unit has been profitable since 2019.
Earlier this month, Politico founder and publisher Robert Allbritton told employees in a memo that the company might seek to eventually combine Politico and Politico Europe into one publication. He did not comment on reported deal talks with Axel Springer at the time.
According to Thursday’s announcement, Axel Springer will not only buy Politico’s US site and the remaining 50 percent stake in Politico Europe, but also sibling tech news site Protocol.
Allbritton will continue in his current role for both Politico and Protocol. The companies said its editorial and management leadership teams at Protocol and in the US and Europe at Politico would remain and operate the publications independently from Axel Springer’s other US brands.
Politico was founded in 2007 with the mission to cover Washington, DC, in a new way, giving readers a peek at the inner workings of the Beltway. The site included blog posts, morning email newsletters, in-depth coverage of elections and legislative news, as well as high-priced subscription services.
“”It became steadily more clear that the responsibility to grow the business on a global scale, to better serve the audience and create more opportunities for our employees, might be better advanced by a larger company with a significant global footprint and ambitions than it could be by me as owner of a family business,” Allbritton said.
The companies expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year.