Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Bertelsmann Corporation, with headquarters in the small northern German city of Gütersloh, is one of the largest multinational media, information, and consulting corporations worldwide (→  Media Conglomerates ), with a turnover of almost 20 million euros and about 100,000 employees (all figures here are for 2006). If the size of the company is assessed on the basis not of annual turnover but of its credit rating with banks, then for many years Bertelsmann has been the world's largest multinational information concern, as (unlike many US companies) it has been debt free for a long time. The following six companies belong to Bertelsmann: Gruner and Jahr magazine publishers (14 percent share of turnover), the →  Television group RTL (29 percent), the publishing house Random House (10 percent), 50 percent of Sony BMG Music Entertainment (10 percent), the Direct Group Bertelsmann with its worldwide book clubs (13 percent), and the consultancy company Arvato (24 percent). Bertelsmann is the world market leader in →  book publishing (in the USA, it owns among others Random House, Knopf, Doubleday, Ballantine, and Bantam Dell) and book clubs; in the music business Bertelsmann is among the five music majors (→  Music Industry ); and it is market leader in Europe for →  magazines . The current Bertelsmann concern began as a small publisher of Christian song and text books, founded in 1835. ... log in or subscribe to read full text