The Big Sell-Off Springer Pulls Up Its Roots
Axel Springer is selling off some of its best-loved magazines and newspapers, including Hamburger Abendblatt and Bild der Frau.
Funke Mediengruppe is buying the print package for 920 million ($1.2 billion) and Springer will actually be lending it some of that sum. Privately-held Funke will pay 660 million by June 30, 2014, at the latest, while Axel Springer will lend the remainder of the price to Funke for several years.
Staff at Springer in Hamburg were shocked by the announcement: "Axel Springer would not have made this sort of strategic decisions," says Peter Jebsen from the company's works council.
Springer, the third-largest media company in Germany has apparently lost faith in the profitability of journalism.
Springer opted to sell Funke a slew of its newspapers and magazines while they can still fetch decent prices.
