On November 14, 2025, the long-running saga over the ownership of one of Britain’s most storied newspapers took a dramatic turn. RedBird Capital Partners, the American private investment firm, abruptly withdrew its £500 million ($671 million) bid for the Telegraph Media Group, leaving the future of The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister paper hanging in the balance. The collapse of the deal capped more than two years of uncertainty, regulatory wrangling, and mounting newsroom resistance, thrusting the 170-year-old publication back into limbo.
RedBird’s withdrawal came after months of negotiations and scrutiny, not to mention a previous failed attempt to acquire the Telegraph in 2023. According to BBC, the latest bid had been carefully structured to comply with new UK media laws, which cap foreign sovereign wealth funds’ stakes in newspapers at 15%. This was a direct response to earlier political backlash, as RedBird’s previous bid was majority-backed by Abu Dhabi’s IMI group, itself owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family. The government’s intervention in 2023 and subsequent legislative changes had effectively blocked that attempt, reflecting growing unease about foreign state ownership in the British press.
Despite these adjustments, the revised deal was still set for a regulatory review, and the climate around the sale remained tense. As Reuters reported, internal opposition from senior figures within the Telegraph newsroom played a decisive role in RedBird’s decision to walk away. A source close to RedBird told Reuters that “sustained internal opposition from senior figures within the Telegraph newsroom had prompted it to walk away on Friday morning.” The newsroom’s resistance was not subtle. Chris Evans, editor of The Telegraph, addressed staff directly, saying, “It’s no secret that all senior editors and many writers had concerns about the bid.” He added, “The Telegraph deserves owners who care about journalism and who will invest. We will do our best to ensure this process ends as soon as possible – with a buyer who shares our passion and our ambition for The Telegraph.”
RedBird, for its part, tried to put a brave face on the withdrawal. In a statement echoed across multiple outlets including CNN and The Independent, a spokesperson said, “We remain fully confident that The Telegraph and its world-class team have a bright future ahead of them and we will work hard to help secure a solution which is in the best interests of employees and readers.” Yet, sources close to the firm expressed frustration at the drawn-out process and the lack of support from UK stakeholders. As one source told The Independent, “This got pulled because there was simply too much time and opposition to a deal which would have helped British media. Time to move on and find another buyer. The support for investors wanting to invest in the UK has been deeply disappointing. We move on.”
The collapse of the deal has left the Telegraph’s future as uncertain as ever. The publication, founded in 1855 and long associated with right-leaning politics and support for the Conservative Party—earning it the nickname “The Torygraph”—has been in a state of flux since the RedBird-IMI consortium paid off the debts of its previous owners, the Barclay family, in hopes of taking eventual ownership. That effort, too, was stymied by government intervention and new laws aimed at curbing foreign state influence in the press. According to The New York Times, the Conservative-led government passed a law in 2024 barring foreign states from owning British newspapers, a restriction that the subsequent Labour government later relaxed, though it signaled that any RedBird bid would still face close scrutiny.
Throughout the process, questions about foreign influence swirled around the proposed takeover. RedBird’s links to China and the Gulf region drew scrutiny not only from Telegraph journalists but also from human rights and freedom of expression organizations. In August 2025, a coalition of such groups penned an open letter to the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, raising concerns about editorial independence and media plurality. RedBird has repeatedly denied any ties to Beijing, insisting it would safeguard the Telegraph’s editorial independence through an advisory board. As Reuters noted, Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, described RedBird’s withdrawal as “a victory for those concerned about foreign influence in UK media,” adding, “The Telegraph does need to survive, and find a way out of its current limbo, but not at the cost of its freedom.”
Meanwhile, the Telegraph Media Group’s leadership is left to pick up the pieces. Anna Jones, chief executive, told staff, “I will now work with the board of independent directors on next steps and what this means for the future ownership of the business. This process has been challenging and unpredictable but your hard work and continued patience is a credit to you all.” The immediate priority, according to a company spokesperson quoted by CNN and The Independent, is “to minimize disruption to the business and work with all stakeholders, including DCMS, towards a solution.”
RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale had ambitious plans to expand the Telegraph’s digital footprint in the United States, seeing a gap in the market that rivals such as the Daily Mail, BBC, and The Guardian have already moved to fill. With RedBird’s exit, those expansion plans are now on ice, and the Telegraph is likely to remain in a holding pattern until a new buyer emerges. Several media moguls have reportedly shown interest, but the path forward is anything but clear.
The saga also highlights the increasingly complex and politically sensitive nature of media ownership in the UK. Giao Pacey, a media lawyer at Simkins, told Reuters that the collapse of the deal “underscored the growing complexity of media ownership in politically sensitive sectors, where regulatory uncertainty and reputational risks can derail even well-structured transactions.” The Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment on the withdrawal, underscoring the delicacy of the situation.
For now, the Telegraph’s fate remains uncertain, its staff and readers left to wonder who will step forward to secure the future of a British media institution that has weathered more than a century and a half of political storms, ownership battles, and, now, the perils of global capital and regulatory scrutiny. The only certainty is that the next chapter in the Telegraph’s story is still waiting to be written.
