Bauer Media, home to some of Britiain’s biggest magazines and radio stations, has acquired the Absolute Radio network for an estimated £25m.
The German company also operates the Kiss and Magic networks as well as 54 national magazines including Heat and Grazia. Before yesterday’s deal, it already held a 27 per cent share of commercial listenership in the UK.
Bauer said that the acquisition of Absolute would take the total audience reach for its media assets to more than 23 million consumers a week.
The deal represents a significant loss for previous owners the Times of India Group, who put the station up for sale in June 2011.
TIML purchased Virgin Radio for £53m in 2008 and spent a further £15m re-launching the station as Absolute in September 2008
Paul Keenan, CEO at Bauer Media UK, said, “We are looking forward to working with Absolute Radio and have great respect for what it has achieved”
“We are excited about welcoming this complementary music radio business with renowned digital assets into Bauer. It’s a marvellous acquisition for the company”.
In the second quarter of 2012 Absolute Radio announced record listening figures, with an audience of 2.28 million listeners – the largest digital audience of any commercial station.
In October a third consecutive annual loss since its rebranding, of £4m, was reported by the station.
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