Springer buys Business Insider majority stake for £226.3 million

The latest transaction gives it another 88 per cent and values Business Insider at a total of £291.8 million

Ninety-two per cent of people said they would be uncomfortable asking to borrow money (Getty)

Business Insider news website has sold majority stake of its company to German publishing giant Axel Springer for £226.3 million.

Springer, which had been touted as a buyer for the Financial Times before the newspaper went to Japan's Nikkei, already owned 9 per cent of the site.

The latest transaction gives it another 88 per cent and values Business Insider at a total of £291.8 million.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos holds the remaining shares through Bezos Expeditions, his personal investment vehicle.

"The transaction is an essential component of Axel Springer's strategy to grow with digital journalistic offerings in English-language geographies," Springer said in a statement.

Business Insider is led by chief executive and editor-in-chief Henry Blodget, a former Wall Street analyst specialising in internet stocks who was later fined and banned from the securities industry for issuing fraudulent research and expressing views that "were inconsistent with privately expressed negative views".

He started the site with DoubleClick founders Dwight Merriman and Kevin Ryan in 2007, raising almost £40 million in funding and overseeing its rapid growth.

Its tabloid style headlines have been credited with changing how readers consumer business news and claims to be the largest business news site on the web