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overview
holdings
landmarks
related:
Gruner+Jahr
Springer
Science
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landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
Context is provided by the broader communications and
media timeline on this site.
antecedents
1808
Ricordi music publishing house founded by Giovanni Ricordi
1835 Bertelsmann founded as a religious printer and publisher
1862 Bertelsmann family publish Konservative Volksfreund
newspaper
1869 music publisher Durand founded as Durand-Schoenewek
& Cie
1880 Ricordi buys Francesco Lucca publishing house
1887 Bertelsmann control passes to son-in-law Johannes
Mohn
1887 The Bodley Head founded
1894 Editions Salabert founded
1897 Doubleday & McClure founded
1901 Victor Talking Machine Co founded in New Jersey
1907 Editions Max Eschig founded
1915 Alfred A Knopf forms Knopf
1922 UFA film production company founded in Berlin, becomes
monopoly film producer and distributor in thirties
1924 Knopf and H L Mencken launch The American Mercury
1925 Cerf & Klopfer buy The Modern Library
1927 Random House founded
1927 Doubleday Page & Co merges with George Doran
as Doubleday Moran
1929 Victor bought by Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
1931 Salman Schocken founds Schocken Books
1942 Kurt & Helen Wolff found Pantheon
1944 Random House of Canada established
1945 Bantam Books founded
takeoff
1950 first Bertelsmann book club formed
1952 Ballantine founded
1953 Anchor Books founded by Jason Epstein
1954 Knopf launches Vintage Books
1958 Ariola Eurodisc founded in Germany and Austria by
Bertelsmann
1958 Bertelsmann record-pressing subsidiary Sonopress
founded
1960 Random House buys Alfred A Knopf
1961 Random House buys Pantheon Books
expansion within Europe
1962 Bertelsmann founds Círculo de Lectores book club
in Spain
1964 takes over Ufa chain (UFA cinema chain sold in early
seventies)
1965 Random House bought by RCA
1966 Bertelsmann takes stake in Austrian Donauland book
club
1969 Bertelsmann takes 25% stake in Hamburg printing and
publishing house Gruner &
Jahr (owner of Stern, Brigitte, Capital magazines)
1969 UK publisher Chatto & Windus merges with Jonathan
Cape
1970 Bertelsmann buys Verlag Heinrich Vogel
1970 founds France Loisirs book club in France
1973 buys Münchener Medizin Verlag)
1973 Chatto and Cape merge with Bodley Head
1973 Random House buys Ballantine Books
1973 Gerd Bucerius sells his shares in Gruner + Jahr for
shares in Bertelsmann (which becomes majority shareholder
of G+J with 60%)
1974 Bertelsmann buys Vieweg publisher
1975 buys 9.9% of Gruner + Jahr from John Jahr
1976 acquires Ernst Naumann's 5% of Gruner + Jahr
1977 buys Goldmann Verlag, largest German paperback publisher
1977 Mohn founds Bertelsmann Foundation
colonisation of the US
1978 Gruner & Jahr buys US Parents Magazine group,
forms Gruner & Jahr US
1979 Bertelsmann buys US-based Arista Records from Columbia
Pictures
1980 buys Bantam Books, largest paperback publisher in
the world, and the Spanish publisher Plaza & Janés
1980 RCA sells Random group to Advance
1982 Random buys Fawcett Books in 1982
1984 Bertelsmann and Gruner & Jahr merge electronic
media interests in Ufa Film & Broadcasting. Ufa takes
40% stake in RTL plus, first private German-language television
station
1984 Random buys Times Books from New
York Times
1985 Bertelsmann and RCA merge their
worldwide music business
1986 Bertelsmann buys remainder of RCA Records from General
Electric; resulting music company is named Bertelsmann
Music Group (BMG) in 1987
1986 Random buys Fodor's Travel Guides
1986 Bertelsmann buys Doubleday publishers
1987 Random buys Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head & Jonathan
Cape
1987 Durand buys Amphion and Eschig catalogues
1988 BMG signs agreement to distribute MCA product outside
North America
1988 Random House buys Crown Publishing Group (inc Crown
and Clarkson Potter)
1989 Random House buys UK Century Hutchinson publishing
group
1993 Reinhard Mohn transfers 68.8% of equity to Bertelsmann
Foundation
1994 Bertelsmann buys Ricordi, Italy's largest independent
music company
1994 buys French specialist publishing house Codes Rousseau
and 50% of Groupe Impact Médecin
1994 Bertelsmann buys German Ibau publisher
1996 purchase of 25% of Zomba records (UK)
1996 BMG buys rock labels CMC and Loud and new age label
Windham Hill
1996 BMG licenses BBC Worldwide (BBC
publishing arm)
1996 1996 Bertelsmann and debis found mediaWays, Germany's
second largest ISP
1997 BMG buys ZicZac label (Poland)
1997 Random buys trade division of Reed
Books
CLT, Random House and Springer-Verlag
1997 UFA merges with Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion
(CLT), active in private broadcasting since 1931
1998 Bertelsmann buys Random House from Advance
and merges it with Bantam Doubleday Dell
1998 buys EMB music publishing house in Hungary
1999 buys majority share in scientific publishing house
Springer-Verlag
2000 CLT-UFA merges with television arm of Pearson,
becomes RTL
2000 Gruner & Jahr US buys Fast Company for
US$360m
2000 buys 25 business magazines from EMAP
for £14.3m
2000 buys Falken Verlag in Germany
2000 buys Editions Durand, Eschig and Amphion catalogues
from Vivendi
2001 25% stake in Bertelsmann acquired by Pargesa
subsidiary Groupe Bruxelles Lambert as part of RTL deal
2001 Sonopress sold
2001 buys Editions Salabert in France
2001 buys Myplay Inc in US for US$33m
2001 Bertelsmann announces plan to buy Pearson's
stake in RTL
2002 AOLTW announces plan to spend
US$6.75bn buying Bertelsmann's 49.5% stake in AOL Europe
2003 London-based private equity funds Candover
and Cinven buy
BertelsmannSpringer for €1.05bn and merge it with
Kluwer Academic Publishers as
Springer Science + Business
Media
2003 Bertelsmann buys Ullstein-Heyne-List book publishing
interests of Axel Springer
2003 Bertelsmann sells Random House's New York offices
for US$297m
2003
announces plan to merge BMG record arm with Sony
record arm
2003 BMG buys 50% of S Records for reported US$42m
2004 launches fortnightly Tele 2 Semaines in
France
2004 Gruner & Jahr sells YM magazine to Conde
Nast
2005 Gruner & Jahr sells US consumer titles Family
Circle, Parents, Child and Fitness
to Meredith for US$350m
2006 Bertelsmann announces buy back of Frere stake
2006 European Court of First Instance annuls European
Commission's approval of 2004 merger between Sony Music
and BMG
2006 Vivendi's Universal Music agrees to buy BMG Music
Publishing for €1.63bn
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