Politico and Telegraph owner pitched deal to buy European arm of TikTok

One of Europe’s top media moguls has sought to hive off and acquire a stake in TikTok’s European operations, pitching the politically charged plan to a well-connected member of the Trump administration.

Mathias Döpfner, chief executive and co-owner of Germany’s Axel Springer, proposed that his company could be part of a deal to buy the Chinese-owned app’s European business during a lunch with the US ambassador to France Charles Kushner, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Döpfner, whose company owns Politico and the UK’s Daily Telegraph, invited Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to a gathering in the publishing giant’s Berlin headquarters in January.

People familiar with the meeting said the media executive proposed a plan similar to the agreement brokered by President Trump to spin off TikTok’s US arm in response to national security concerns about the platform’s Chinese owners.

Under that deal, which valued US TikTok at $14bn, a group of investors including Larry Ellison’s Oracle set up a joint venture with the Beijing-based ByteDance. Their new California-based entity gained more control over algorithms and US users’ data.

The encounter between Döpfner and Kushner underlines the scale of the ambition of the German media boss, who in 2022 suggested in private messages to Elon Musk that he should buy Twitter and let him run it.

Döpfner made an unsuccessful bid to buy the Financial Times in 2015, buying Business Insider two months later and Politico in 2021. He has said in the past that he would be interested in buying Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal if it ever came up for sale.

Earlier this year, the billionaire — who rose from the role of editor-in-chief of broadsheet Die Welt to become chief executive and then co-owner of the entire company — surprised Fleet Street by buying the Telegraph for £575mn.

The Kushner meeting also highlights Axel Springer’s efforts to get closer to the Trump administration, even as the White House last month denied access to Politico journalists in response to their reporting.

In February, Döpfner met with the US president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Last month, he presented an Axel Springer award to billionaire investor Peter Thiel, a Republican Party donor and backer of vice-president JD Vance.

During the first Trump administration, he forged a close relationship with the US ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell.

The private event with Kushner, held in Axel Springer’s wood-panelled “journalists’ club”, was billed as a discussion about antisemitism on social media platforms.

Döpfner has publicly described TikTok as “one of the most dangerous propaganda machines for amplifying extremist content”, including hatred against Jewish people.

The group of attendees included prominent Axel Springer journalists, a former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and several members of the Bundestag.

The talk turned to Döpfner’s ambitions to spin out the European part of the Chinese-owned platform, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

While Döpfner has publicly stated his support for the idea as early as 2022, he has never said openly that he wanted to be one of the investors.

In an interview with the German press agency DPA at the start of September, he said TikTok “should either be sold to democratic shareholders or banned”. He added: “I still don’t understand why we in Europe aren’t taking action. The Americans have shown that it can be done.”

He added, however, that while Axel Springer’s German titles had long held off from having a presence on the platform, that could have to change. “If a solution isn’t found soon, we won’t be able to do without TikTok as a distribution channel,” he said.

While Döpfner’s idea was discussed with figures at the European Commission’s technology division, they were not enthusiastic and the idea was dropped, Brussels officials said. ByteDance was also not keen.

In recent weeks, Axel Springer’s German titles Bild and Welt have established a presence on TikTok for the first time.

The US embassy in Paris declined to comment.

Axel Springer said: “As is clear from his public statements, Mathias Döpfner has always advocated for a European solution for TikTok along the lines of the American model.”

“Had such a solution materialised, Axel Springer would have welcomed the opportunity to be part of it as a major European media player,” it added.

ByteDance said: “This is a total fabrication and not even worth dignifying with a comment.”

Additional reporting by Eleanor Olcott in London