Mergers and Acquisitions

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses that the current M&A flurry eases the pain of the declining market and that newer publishing companies are looking for a buyout instead of long term profitability. This paper describes the structure of the international publishing industry, especially the multi-national media conglomerate giant Bertelsmann, which now owns such companies as Doubleday and Random House. The author is concerned that ,with just six major companies in the media field, we are facing the prospect of living in the information age, where all that information will be controlled by very few people who feel that only the bottom line is important.

From the Paper:

"The fact is that in 1836 the Bertelsmann family ventured into the world of publishing because they didn't feel there were enough bibles available in Germany. This proved to be a profitable venture and Bertelsmann gradually grew over the next century and a half until they became the biggest trade book publisher in Germany. As Bertelsmann progressed, they also began adding print and broadcast media to their portfolio, ultimately making them one of the top (now number three) media conglomerates in the world. Then over the last five years, they really stepped things up. Being cash rich and debt-free, they began to take advantage of others in the industry -- who operating at a marginal level were hit hard when the world economy slowed and sales dropped. They acquired Doubleday, which includes Delacorte and Dell, and merged it with Bantam, a previous acquisition. They did make the front pages in 1998 when they purchased Random House, the largest and most prestigious trade book publisher in the U.S.."

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