LONDON (AP) — U.S. investment firm RedBird Capital said Friday that it has dropped its offer to buy the publisher of Britain’s 170-year-old conservative Daily Telegraph newspaper for about 500 million pounds ($660 million).

RedBird, which was leading a consortium for the purchase, said in May that it had reached an in-principle agreement to become the controlling owner of the Telegraph Media Group.

“We remain fully confident that the Telegraph and its world-class team have a bright future ahead of them and we will work hard to help secure a solution which is in the best interests of employees and readers,” RedBird said in a statement Friday.

The Telegraph group publishes the daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers, both of which are closely allied to Britain’s Conservative Party.

The gro

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