British press magnate Robert Maxwell and Canadian industrialist Charles Bronfman have joined forces to bid for a controlling interest in The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s only English-language daily.
Koor Industries, the financially troubled Histadrut conglomerate that currently holds 55 percent of the Post’s shares, is selling its interest as part of a broader move to liquidate some of its assets.
The amount of the Maxwell-Bronfman offer, made just before bids were to close on Monday, has not been disclosed.
Maxwell recently bought shares in the Ma’ariv afternoon newspaper and in the Scitex computer-imaging company. He also beat Bronfman’s effort to buy a large block of shares in the Teva pharmaceutical firm earlier this month.
If they win a controlling interest in the Post, Maxwell and Bronfman will sign a joint agreement to the effect that all important decisions regarding the Post will be taken by both partners, according to a statement they issued over the weekend.
In a statement to its readers published by the Post last week, its editors said that the 60-year-old newspaper would continue to maintain its Zionist character, editorial independence, journalistic integrity and freedom, no matter who bought up the shares being sold by Koor.
The Post noted Sunday that “Maxwell and Bronfman, two of the world’s leading Jewish financiers, are apparently interested in developing The Jerusalem Post and expanding its influence among world Jewry.”
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