Noerr advises Bauer Media Group on acquisition of Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

Noerr has provided Bauer Media Group (Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG) with comprehensive advice on its acquisition of Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung from DuMont. With this takeover Bauer Media Group is expanding its portfolio of regional newspapers.

Based in Halle (Saale) in the central German state of Saxony-Anhalt, Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung publishes Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (MZ), the largest regional daily newspaper in the south of Saxony-Anhalt with 17 local editions and a circulation of around 162,000 copies. Besides the MZ, the sale also includes the news website mz.de, the free newspapers WochenSpiegel and SuperSonntag with a total weekly circulation of around 1,3 million copies and 27 local editions, logistics and printing activities, the regional TV station TV Halle, as well as activities in the areas of ticketing and typesetting services. Around 1,100 employees will be taken on by Bauer Media Group.

The transaction still has to be approved by the Federal Cartel Office; normal closing conditions have been agreed.

Headquartered in Hamburg, Bauer Media Group is Europe’s largest newspaper publisher and one of the world’s leading media groups with its around 11,500 staff. Noerr advised the media group on the acquisition process with a team led by Hamburg-based partner Volker Land. Land, who also co-heads Noerr’s Hamburg office which opened in April 2017, has regularly provided the client with advice on M&A transactions in the past.

Advisors to Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG: Noerr LLP

Dr Volker Land (Hamburg), Robert Korndörfer (Munich, both Corporate/M&A, joint lead), Dr Florian-Felix Marquardt (Tax, Berlin), Dr Felix Muhl (Commercial, Hamburg), Dr Mansur Pour Rafsendjani (Digital Business, Munich), Yvonne Dietzel (Employment, Dresden), Dr Torsten Kraul, Dr Julian von Lucius (both Telecommunications, Berlin), Michael Schuhmacher (Finance, Frankfurt), Dr Kathrin Westermann (Berlin, Antitrust)

Associates: Vanessa Wüsthoff (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Dr Wolfgang Wittek (Employment, Hamburg), Julia Hecht (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr Maximilian Kummer (Commercial, Munich), Elena Lehrke (Telecommunications, Munich), Klaudyna Lichnowska (Finance, Frankfurt), Manuel Lomb (Real Estate, Munich), Diana Richter (Commercial, Munich), Dr Jan Weismantel (Digital Business, Munich), Dr Eva Fischbach (IP, Hamburg)

In-house: Dr. Gerald Mai und Daniela Wallin (Legal)