Bauer’s purchase of O’Brien’s radio empire is shake-up time

The German publishing and broadcasting company Bauer Media which has bought the Communicorp stable of radio stations is likely to energise a moribund Irish radio industry that has, nevertheless, managed to hold onto its listeners

Denis O’Brien has sold his Communicorp media business to Bauer Media

Never let a good crisis go to waste, Winston Churchill said. Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp and Bauer Media appear to have taken the epigram to heart and have just completed one of the biggest Irish media transactions of the past decade under the cover of Covid-19.

There’s a way to go yet with regulatory and ministerial approval still to be completed, but for a variety of reasons it’s unlikely there will be an undue delay.

Bauer ...