The Swedish free newspaper "war" took an interesting turn in May when Schibstedt suddenly, but still expectedly, took its free newspaper Punkt.se (which means dot.se in Swedish) from the market. At the same time Schibstedt and Metro announced that Schibstedt will acquire 35 perc of the shares in Metro Sweden for MSEK 350, a move that was very well received by the stock market.
During the last two years the three large cities of Sweden; Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmo, has experienced a fierce competition on the newspaper market with at its peak three free newspapers. Besides Metro and Punkt.se, Bonniers publishes City which started as a competitior to Metro in Stockholm but now is published also in Malmo and, during a period, also in Goteborg.
Now Metro is the only one left in Goteborg. In the Stockholm market Metro and Stockholm City continues to compete and which is also the case in Skane where Bonnier has formed a new alliance in order to let City grow also outside Malmo.