
The Al Jazeera TV channel has been sold to Qatar News Agency, according to a company spokesperson.
Al Jazeera’s Al Jazeera Arabic English channel was bought by Qatar News, which is owned by Doha Media Group, a company owned by the family of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The deal is subject to the approval of Qatar Media Group.
The channel is scheduled to be shut down by the end of the year.
Al Jazeera is a French-language television network with English and Arabic services.
It was launched in 2012 by Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, a group of British businessmen led by British businessman Sheikh Tamir Al Thammi, the first female emir of Qatar.
Misr bought Al Jazeera for US$1.5bn.
The Qatar News Media Group has no immediate comment on the sale.
A spokesman for Qatar News said the Qatar News Network would remain under the Al Jazeera umbrella, and that it would not be able to continue broadcasting on the Al Arabiya channel.
A senior executive at Qatar News told Al Jazeera: “Qatar News Media has the utmost respect for Al Jazeera.
We have worked with Qatar News to ensure that the Qatar Network remains in its own hands.”
A Qatar News spokesman said that the network was looking to sell its media assets in a bid to “reduce costs and diversify its business models”.
He said that “the sale is subject and approved by Qatar Media.
Qatar News remains committed to its mission to promote the rights and interests of the country and the people of Qatar”.
Qatar News is owned in part by Qatari-American businessman and investor Salim Al Mubarak, whose family is also Qatar’s biggest private investor.
Al Mubarak was appointed as the emir’s adviser on Qatar in December 2012.
He has also become one of the richest men in the country.
He is the head of Al Jazeera International, the Qatar-based network of state-owned media outlets.
Al-Thammi has been appointed emir by his father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also a Qatar-American.
He said in his speech on the launch of the Qatar network that Qatar News was a “great asset” for the country, which was experiencing economic problems, and would help the country to “continue the progress of the struggle against corruption”.
The emir has previously said that Qatar would “open up its arms to the world”.
In 2015, he called on “the Arab world to unite against corruption, and the corruption of Qatar and the Arab world”.
“Our goal is to open up the country’s economic resources to the Arab and international world,” Al Mubarak said.
Al Mubasher’s son, Saif Al Thamsi, is the Qatari finance minister and has served as the countrys finance minister.
He was appointed finance minister in February 2017.
Al Thampsi said he was appointed by the emirs father, the emira.
“I will be responsible for Qatar’s finances,” he told reporters.
The emirs decision to sell Al Jazeera Media has come after it was reported in December that Qatar had received US$7bn (£4.8bn) in US government aid in the last five years.
The US has been providing some $400m in military and financial aid for Qatar, which has also received $300m in US aid.
In February 2018, Qatar received $1.8 billion from the United States for military and security assistance.
“The US has provided us with a major military and technical assistance,” Al Thomsi said in a statement.
“We will continue to cooperate with the US in any way possible and support any US request, so long as it is in the interests of Qatar.”
In June 2018, Al Thammers sister, Hamad Bin Abdulrahman Al Thamid, became the first woman to head Qatar News after he was elected to the position in May 2018.