All news on the topic: Axel Springer

The police and customs officers had been waiting for hours. Parked outside the Radisson Blu Senator Hotel in the northern German city of Lübeck, they sat in silence, engines off, watching the entrance.

The culture secretary has approved Axel Springer’s £575 million takeover of the Telegraph, ending nearly three years of uncertainty over the ownership of the titles.

It comes after Daily Mail and General Trust had previously agreed to buy the Telegraph last year.