Bertelsmann Gains Control of RTL Group

[London, ENGLAND] European media giant Bertelsmann AG announced
Monday it has gained control of the TV, film and Internet production
companies that comprise the RTL Group by acquiring another 30 percent
of RTL’s shares.

The cost? Almost literally an arm and a leg — as Bertelsmann has
parted with 25.1 percent of itself to make the acquisition in a
transaction estimated to be worth EUR 4.2 billion ($3.95 billion).

Bertelsmann has purchased the RTL shares from Groupe Bruxelles Lambert
S.A. (GBL) whose stock is majority-owned by private entrepreneurs
Albert Frère and Paul Desmarais. In turn, GBL takes its quarter of
Bertelsmann with an option of putting the stake on the stock market
in three to four years’ time.

If all this sounds like a complicated piece of horse-trading, it
certainly is — and made more so by Friday’s preliminary step
in which RTL Group purchased Bertelsmann’s Broadband Group for
EUR 12.8 million (US $11.9 million).

RTL Group’s interests in TV, radio and film production are much more
extensive than its Web activities, although its Web venture RTL World
is becoming one of Europe’s most visited portals. Its key sites are
RTL.de, RTL.Dating.de, Formel-1.de, GZSZ.de and RTL-mail.de.

Ownership of the respective groups is now as follows. RTL Group
is 67 percent owned by Bertelsmann, 22 percent by Pearson, with
the remaining 11 percent free-floating. Bertelsmann AG is
57.6 percent owned by the Bertelsmann Foundation; 17.3 percent
by the Mohn Family, and 25.1 percent by GBL.

Reinhard Mohn appears unconcerned that GBL now has a substantially
greater share of Bertelsmann than does the Mohn Family, saying
the two shared a mutually trusting cooperation.

“We have found a partner who will help us ensure that our work
remains efficient, purposeful, up-to-date and results-oriented,”
said Mohn.

In something of an understatement, Paul Desmarais and Albert Frère
said they were delighted to strengthen their “longstanding and
cherished ties to the Bertelsmann group.”

“This agreement represents a major step for GBL, and is a sign of
our readiness to invest strategically for the long term. We are
offering our shareholders the prospect of participating in the
growth of one of the world’s leading media groups,” added Desmarais
and Frère.

25.1 percent of Bertelsmann is certainly more valuable than 30
percent of RTL Group. Bertelsmann’s far-flung empire employs
76,000 people in 58 countries, encompassing Internet retailers
Bol.com and CDnow, BMG Music with artists such as Whitney Houston,
magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr whose titles include Family Circle
and Stern, while its ownership of Random House helps make it the
largest English language book publisher in the world.

RTL Group was created by the merger of CLT-UFA and Pearson TV in April
2000. It has 22 television stations and 18 radio stations in 11
countries, and claims to be the leading sports rights marketer
in Europe.