Business Insider Owner Axel Springer Is Said to Weigh Split

(Bloomberg) — The owners of Axel Springer SE, the German group that owns Politico and Business Insider, are discussing splitting the company’s media assets from its other businesses, people familiar with the matter said. 

Private equity firm KKR & Co. is most interested in the company’s classifieds unit while Chief Executive Officer Mathias Döpfner would take greater control over the the media properties, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. No final decisions have been made and the talks may not lead to a deal, they said. The Financial Times reported the talks earlier. 

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The separation would mark an end to a nearly five-year partnership after Döpfner and Friede Springer, the founder’s widow who controlled the company for years after his death, teamed up with KKR to take the company private. While Axel Springer’s media side has focused its expansion on the US in the last decade — buying Politico and BI — the company is still influential in its home market. It owns the nearly 80-year-old Die Welt broadsheet and the Bild tabloid, Germany’s best-selling newspaper. 

A split could hand KKR the faster-growing side unit while allowing it to step away from the costly and politically-fraught business of journalism. Springer described its classifieds unit as “a very strong driver” of its business in the first half of 2023 in a financial update last July. By contrast, a weaker ad market and the decision to invest hurt the profitability of its US media brands during the period, the company said.

KKR and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired just under half of Axel Springer after the take-private deal closed. The company’s portfolio of classified ad websites includes jobs platform StepStone and real estate ads unit Aviv. 

A representative for KKR declined to comment on any potential split and said that the firm believes “in the continued success and growth of the business.” 

A spokesperson for Axel Springer also declined to comment on the separation and said “all shareholders are highly satisfied with Axel Springer’s progress” since it was delisted. 

—With assistance from Molly Schuetz.

(Updates with context in fourth paragraph and Axel Springer comment)

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