Axel Springer Buys RE Media Company Bisnow

Axel Springer is adding to its portfolio of media companies, buying real estate publication Bisnow.

Axel Springer announced the acquisition of the commercial real estate editorial and events platform on Tuesday. The deal closed a day earlier.

The acquisition price of Bisnow was not disclosed and a spokesperson for Axel Springer declined to provide it to The Real Deal.

Axel Springer already counts Business Insider, Politico and Morning Brew as part of its media portfolio. With the acquisition of Bisnow, Axel Springer will launch the Brew Media Group division, where Bisnow and Morning Brew will operate as separate companies; Morning Brew CEO and former Bisnow Chief Revenue Officer Robert Dippell will lead the group.

“Bisnow expands Axel Springer’s U.S. footprint by adding B2B capabilities, event infrastructure, and commercial relationships,” Axel Springer Chief Operating Officer Claudius Senst said in a statement.

Bisnow first launched in 2005 by Mark Bisnow and his son, Elliott. Mark sold the business to private equity firm Wicks Group in 2016 for $50 million.

A profitable business, according to an Axel Springer spokesperson, Bisnow publishes more than 70 newsletters and connects to more than 1.7 million subscribers. It also has an events business, which hosts more than 400 live events annually across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and the Netherlands.

The publication was on the market in 2023, according to A Media Operator, but nothing ever came of it. At that time, Bisnow was generating roughly $40 million in revenue with events representing a sizable 75 percent portion of that figure.

A year before, tragedy struck the company when CEO Will Friend was killed after being struck by lightning while boating in North Carolina. He was 33 years old.

Axel Springer’s self-professed mission “is to become the leading digital publisher of AI‑empowered media in the free world.” There are no plans for changes at either Bisnow or Morning Brew under the Brew Media banner.