Bertelsmann Reorganizes Direct Group
The media company Bertelsmann has reorganized the Direct Group's operations. Following the sale of its French operations, which was completed at the end of May, the Direct Group will be dissolved as an independent division of Bertelsmann effective June 30, 2011.
After that, the four divisions RTL Group, Random House, Gruner + Jahr and Arvato will remain. The club and direct marketing businesses in the German-speaking countries, Spain and Eastern Europe will in future be managed organizationally under Corporate Investments, for which Bertelsmann Executive Board member Thomas Rabe will be responsible, as New-Business.de writes on Wednesday. Corporate Investments includes BMG's activities in the music rights business as well as the Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments BDMI and Bertelsmann Asia Investments BAI funds.
At the same time, strategic options are being examined for the Eastern European book distribution businesses in Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These include a possible sale. According to New-business.de, the CEO of Direct Group, Fernando Carro, will remain responsible for Direct Group. He will also take on additional tasks within the Group, including the development of growth opportunities in Central and South America and Spain.
