Bertelsmann plans to spend up to €1.3 billion a year until 2020 on acquisitions,
the
Financial Times
reported.
The
FT
article says the German family-controlled company, which is Europe's largest media group, seeks to “accelerate its shift from traditional publishing to digital video and online education.”
Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe told the
FT
that if Pearson exercised its option to sell its 47% stake in Penguin Random House next year, Bertelsmann — which co-owns the company with Pearson — would increase its share of the ownership.
Rabe would like to bolster the digital businesses of European broadcaster RTL, which it controls, and of publisher Gruner + Jahr. Rabe is also interested in increasing Bertelsmann's sakes in e-learning companies Hotchalk and Udacity, and in expanding U.S. online health care education provider Relias Learning into the U.K., the
FT
article said.
Rabe told the
FT
that Bertelsmann could invest €1 billion to €1.3 billion per year “without raising more debt than would be healthy for the company long-term,” but those plans are contingent on future profits.
Since 2012, Rabe has been reinventing Bertelsmann “as a digitally focused new media company, while also scaling up its publishing business,” the
FT
article said.
“It is a bold departure for a venerable institution that was founded by Carl Bertelsmann as a publisher of hymn books in 1835 and has for decades been controlled by a single family, the Mohns,” the article said. (Source:
Financial Times
, March 23, 2016.)
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