Hollinger Agrees to Sell Daily Telegraph

Hollinger International Inc. agreed to sell London’s Daily Telegraph to David and Frederick Barclay for $1.33 billion, bringing Conrad Black’s 18 years as owner of Britain’s biggest broadsheet newspaper closer to an end.

The Barclays, British billionaires who publish Edinburgh’s Scotsman and own London’s Ritz Hotel, become the 149-year-old Telegraph’s fifth proprietors and assume the role as the editorial voice of the Conservative Party. The buyers also get the Sunday Telegraph and Spectator and Apollo magazines in the purchase, Chicago-based Hollinger International said.

The sale caps seven months of wrangling sparked by the November discovery of $32.2 million in payments to Black and others that Hollinger International said were unauthorized. The company’s board ousted Black as chief executive, named him in a suit seeking $1.25 billion in damages and put its titles up for auction.

Black, who remains controlling shareholder, may challenge the agreement.