Bertelsmann buying Random House.(Brief Article)

Advertising Age, March, 1998

German media giant Bertelsmann AG agreed last week to acquire Random House from the Newhouse family, owner of Advance Publications and Conde Nast Publications, for an estimated $1.4 billion. Random House will become part of the company that owns Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, as well as Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing.

The merging of the two publishing houses, to carry the Random House name, will mean that Bertelsmann will increase its share of the $21 billion U.S. book market from 6% to 10%. S.I. Newhouse Jr. was reported as saying Advance has no plans to reinvest the money from the sale but would consider other opportunities.