“Axel Springer in Talks to Buy Stake in Politico”

Axel Springer, which in recent years has been ramping up its U.S. publishing operations, was recently in talks to buy Axios, a digital-news publisher. Axios executives told investors in July it was reluctant to do a deal with Axel Springer and was inclined to remain independent….

Axios was launched by Jim VandeHei, Roy Schwartz and journalist Mike Allen in 2017 after the three left Politico. The company, which specializes in short, newsy stories and concise newsletters, cast a wider net beyond politics with coverage of media, technology and finance.

Sports-media outlet the Athletic was in merger talks with Axios earlier this year, but the discussion didn’t move forward.
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Also see the New York Times story by Edmund Lee headlined “The owner of Politico is said to be seeking $1 billion in a deal with Axel Springer.”

The opening grafs:

Politico, the Washington news site popular with Beltway power brokers, is seeking as much as $1 billion in a potential deal with the German publishing giant Axel Springer.

Led by its owner, Robert Allbritton, Politico has been in talks with Axel about a potential investment or an outright sale, two people familiar with the matter said. Such a deal would amount to a hefty premium for Politico, which generates about $200 million a year in revenue, they said.

That would make it one of the most expensive media mergers in recent memory. A $1 billion deal would amount to five times Politico’s yearly sales….