DMGT to sell controlling stake in Teletext

Daily Mail & General Trust is to sell its Teletext service to its current management for an undisclosed sum. DMGT, which was fined by £225,000 by Ofcom for closing Teletext's TV service after 17 years, will retain a minority stake in the business. The current management of the service – which is housed within DMGT's consumer media division, A&N Media – will assume day-to-day operating control of the business with a majority stake. When DMGT announced in 2009 that it would close the TV news and information service, which had become consistently loss-making, it continued to run Teletext Holidays, which broadcasts on Freeview. Teletext's web operation includes teletextholidays.co.uk, thisistravel.co.uk and villarenters.co.uk. Last year DMGT unveiled a plan to develop the Teletext Mobile division into a model similar to a games publisher where it makes its own products but also launches those of other developers. The division launched 15 apps , with a target set for 150 over 12 months, but it is not clear if the strategy was pursued following the departure of Richard Titus , the former BBC executive who ran A&N's digital operation, last summer. DMGT said that in the year to 2 October Teletext generated revenues of £11m and incurred a small loss. Separately DMGT has said that Hobsons, part of its information unit serving the education sector, has completed the acquisition of US firm Intelliworks for $13m (£8m). In the year ended 30th September Intelliworks generated revenues of $5m. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook