As expected, Hollinger International yesterday decided who they wanted to sell the Daily Telegraph too. And the successful bidders are ... the Barclay brothers, the somewhat mysterious billionaire hotel owners, who already own the Scotsman publications in Edinburgh. Ironically disgraced former Telegraph boss Conrad Black, who owns a majority stake of Hollinger, tried to do a quick behind closed doors sale of the Telegraph Group to the Barclays months ago, but was blocked in the courts. Word is the Barclay brothers raised their offer by several million at the last minute to secure yesterday's acquisition.
No word on what the deal means for The Telegraph, although the Barclays have said they don't plan to interfere with the paper's right wing agenda. Whether the Barclay brothers' media man of choice, Andrew Neil, who oversees the brothers' other media interests, will have a role in the Telegraph group is also unclear.