Talpa, the investment vehicle of media tycoon John de Mol, officially dropped its bid for Telegraaf Media Groep (TMG) on Wednesday evening, the Telegraaf has reported.

De Mol is retaining his 29.16% stake in the media group which publishes the Telegraaf newspaper among others.

The Flemish newspaper group Mediahuis has held a 60% majority stake in TMG for some time, backed by the Van Puijenbroek family which is a long-term TMG shareholder.

DeMol/Talpa have said they wanted to merge their radio and television interests with TMG to create an ‘independent Dutch multimedia company’.

But Mediahuis won and all the main Dutch daily papers and many regional ones are now in the hands of two Belgian media groups – Mediahuis (Telegraaf, NRC and various regional papers) and Persgroep (Volkskrant, AD, Parool and other regional papers).

The Telegraaf is the biggest circulation Dutch daily.