olu
walmart, xcit and wallet feature, yahoo etc. are one level of threat to amzn and "net e tailers"
the other is precisely bks -- and lord do they get it -- borders and bert because they will both undercut amzn (larger scale) on line in price (at their own stores and thru the xcit, yahoo, aol, msn etc. shop bots/shopping malls) and can leverage real world stores IN CONJUNCTION with online ... the BCG stud is crystal clear and if it's still not, i'll ask you
will you also enjoy (or will the recipients of your gifts enjoy) exchanging or returning gifts through the us postal service to amzn or would they prefer to have the option to walk into the nearest borders or barnes to return a book or video or cd, or the nearest walmart or macy's to return that palm pilot or ridiculous crystal bowl ... the on line wars are just heating up and the range of possible future profits for amzn are getting narrower,
need more evidence, pls read ..
November 21, 1998
Bertelsmann Signs a Deal for 82% of Springer-Verlag
By DOREEN CARVAJAL
he media conglomerate Bertelsmann A.G. deepened its wide-ranging investments in books Friday, signing a 1 billion German
mark ($597 million) deal to buy a majority stake in a top international publisher of scientific and medical books. The acquisition
will allow Bertelsmann to make new inroads into the United States market.
The deal is for an 82 percent stake in Springer-Verlag G.m.b.H., Germany's largest publisher of scientific journals and technical
books, with headquarters in Berlin and publishing houses all over the world including New York.
The acquisition of the privately owned company, which is subject to approval by European regulators, is part of an aggressive push by
Bertelsmann to become a dominant player in science and technical publishing -- a market that is expected to grow faster than consumer
or popular books in the next few years.
The purchase is the latest in a series of highly visible acquisitions by the German conglomerate, which earlier this year took over
Random House, the leading American trade publisher, and in October struck a deal with Barnes & Noble to participate in a joint
venture in the chain's on-line bookstore.
Almost 25 percent of Springer's annual revenues of 615 million marks comes from the United States, where it has a flourishing
publishing house based in the Flatiron Building at 23d Street and Broadway in Manhattan. More than 60 percent of the company's
publications are in English.
Part of Springer's appeal was its advanced electronic network, which offers more than 400 technical and medical journals through an
information service called Link, said Thomas Middelhoff, Bertelsmann's chief executive, who has been the driving force behind the
acquisitions.
"In this business it's become more and more crucial to be digitized and on the Internet," Middelhoff said. "We believe that with our
strength on the Internet we can add something important to Springer."
He added that Bertelsmann expected Springer to increase its sales of scientific and technical books through Barnes & Noble's
electronic bookstore, placing additional pressures on its E-commerce rival, Amazon.com, which is already doing a brisk business in
the sales of professional books.
Springer-Verlag, he said, will quickly fit into the conglomerate's expanding infrastructure of Internet investments, from its electronic
bookstores in the United States and Europe to its interest in the search engine Lycos and the on-line service America Online.
"On our information highway, which is built for mass consumer markets, we can deliver these scientific, technical and medical contents
for incremental costs -- a great advantage," Middelhoff said yesterday after the purchase agreement with Springer was signed in
Germany.
In a month, Bertelsmann could expand its reach even further in the market for scientific and technical books. It is involved in discussions
with the French media company Havas S.A., a unit of Vivendi S.A., to pool their professional publications in a joint venture. A deal is
expected to become final by the end of December. The two media giants are already equal partners in a Spanish professional publisher,
Doyma, and Middelhoff said that if the new joint venture happened, that would catapult Bertelsmann into the top tier of professional
publishing.
According to Matthew Bechard, associate editor for Simba Information, which tracks the professional and scientific publishing market,
"The whole industry is becoming very consolidated."
"You really need to have a lot of capital and a lot of resources to compete in the market today, and being a private independent
company it was getting difficult for them," Bechard said.
Springer was started in 1842 with the opening of a Berlin bookstore by Julius Springer, who also began publishing German literature
and, later, scientific and academic works. Through the history of the company, various generations of Springers remained involved in its
management except when they were forced out because of their Jewish ancestry in 1935 and 1942. The last Springer to take an active
role was Konrad F. Springer, a partner in the company, who died in 1997. His children and other relatives were the major
shareholders who signed the agreement yesterday to sell most of the company to Bertelsmann.
Bechard, the Simba editor, said the company had not achieved the same kinds of profits as other major participants in the scientific
market, "but by no means are they struggling."
Middelhoff, who led the negotiations, said that Springer's profit margin was about 10 percent, but that the new majority owners
expected an improvement: a return on sales of 15 percent to 20 percent.
"Their objective hasn't been so much on profit," Middelhoff said. "They were much more oriented on quality and now we have to see
that we improve the profit level."
Bertelsmann has already picked a new chairman to head the supervisory board of Springer, Jürgen Richter, who is the former chairman
of Axel Springer, a Berlin-based newspaper conglomerate with no connection to Springer-Verlag.
nytimes.com
lp
ps glenn, cellhigh is not worth the exertion required from your pinky finger entailed in typing a response to him |
