Daily Mail sells Teletext majority stake to management

The Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) has agreed to sell its majority stake in the long-running Teletext service to its current management for an undisclosed sum.

Teletext management will now assume day-to-day operating control of the business with a majority stake. DMGT will retain a minority shareholding.

Teletext has also named Chris Letcher, who has been working at the company as a consultant for the last six months, as its new chairman.

The Teletext operation, including Teletext Holidays, thisistravel.co.uk and villarenters.co.uk, along with various mobile apps, generated revenues of £11m in the year to October, although the company recorded a small loss.

"I see huge potential in Teletext Holidays given its strength as an online player and as television technology moves rapidly to a new future," Letcher said in a statement.

"We have a strong business model and the focus will be on creating market-leading digital distribution platforms and working with our travel partners to ensure we deliver the best holiday deals in the market."

DMGT was fined £225,000 by Ofcom in 2010 for the early closing of the loss-making Teletext TV service, which had been running for 17 years.

The publisher shut down the Teletext information service on analogue and digital television platforms in December 2009, ahead of the initially scheduled January 2010 closure. DMGT continued to offer the Teletext Holidays service on Freeview.

Separately, DMGT has also announced that its subsidiary Hobsons has completed the acquisition of Intelliworks for $13m (£8m).

The firm said that US-based Intelliworks, which makes software for the education sector, would complement Hobsons's existing management solutions.