The German Axel Springer publishing house said on Monday evening that it will completely withdraw from the television business by offloading its 12% share in commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 in a deal worth €509 million . This is the result of an agreement with the investment companies KKR and Permira, which last year took control of the broadcaster by buying the shares from the US media investor Haim Saban.
This is a complete reversal of policy for the publisher, as in the past year Axel Springer tried to gain full control of the broadcaster when bidding €2.5 billion for the shares owned by Saban. However, the German monopoly and media authorities prevented the deal from happening.
