Murdoch to offer €1bn for German 'Sun' and 'Times'

Rupert Murdoch is poised to bid €1.1bn (£700m) for a 40 per cent stake in Springer, publisher of Germany's leading conservative newspapers, the mass-market Bild and the upmarket Die Welt.

Acquiring the stake currently held by Leo Kirch's bankrupt media empire will make Mr Murdoch's News Corporation a significant force in the German media after years of frustration. BSkyB, in which News Corp has a 36.6 per cent holding, recently wrote off its €1bn investment in its joint venture in pay television with Mr Kirch.

Mr Murdoch will not have outright control of Germany's equivalent to The Sun and The Times. That will remain with Friede Springer, whose family owns just over 50 per cent of the company.

Unusual legal strictures give Ms Springer the legal right to determine who can acquire the Kirch stake in Springer, held as collateral by Deutsche Bank following the demise of the Kirch media empire.

Ms Springer supported Mr Murdoch's bid after blocking a €960m offer from the WAZ Group, the leading Rhineland newspaper publisher with strong links to Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats. WAZ is now expected to receive €140m in compensation for its failed bid, the amount it underbid Mr Murdoch.

There are already strong personal links between the Springer organisation and Mr Murdoch. Gus Fischer, the Swiss chairman of the Springer group, was Mr Murdoch's right-hand man for many years at News Corporation.