Germany-based media conglomerate Axel Springer is considering an acquisition of technology news provider Business Insider for several hundred million dollars, Manager Magazin reported yesterday.
Axel Springer currently owns a 7% in the company after it led a $25m round in January 2015. That round also featured Institutional Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, and Jeff Bezos, chief executive of e-commerce company Amazon, as well as several unnamed investors.
Business Insider operates a business and technology news website, and has launched seven international editions so far.
The company has secured approximately $57.5m since 2009. Merchant bank Allen & Company, Kohlberg Ventures, Pilot Group, as well as private investors Marc Andreessen, Gordon Crovitz, Ken Lerer and Allen Morgan have previously backed Business Insider.
The news comes a few months after Axel Springer lost its bid for newspaper Financial Times, which was instead acquired by business media firm Nikkei for $1.3bn in July.
Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Axel Springer, said: “The planned acquisition of Financial Times was only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, we are discussing several investments and acquisitons at the moment.” [translated from German by Global Corporate Venturing]