Springer set to pull out of race for Daily Telegraph

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2004

FRANKFURT (AFP) — German newspaper publisher Axel Springer has pulled out of the race to buy the British Daily Telegraph newspaper because it is not prepared to pay the asking price, industry sources revealed.

Axel Springer was not immediately available to comment on the information.

Springer, which publishes the mass-circulation German daily Bild, was willing to pay 550 million pounds (816 million euros, 987 million dollars) for the Telegraph.

However, the British daily's owners, Hollinger International, were demanding more than 600 million pounds, the sources said Thursday.

The German publisher was prepared to re-enter negotiations of if Hollinger lowered the asking price, they added.

A report in the business daily Handelsblatt quoted...