05.05.09: Federal Cartel Office Approves wissenmedia GmbH's Takeover of the Brockhaus Brand

Gütersloh, April 30, 2009. The Federal Cartel Office has approved wissenmedia GmbH’s acquisition of the Brockhaus brand. The company is expected to take over the Brockhaus brand with all the contents and assets of Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG on June 1, 2009.

With this acquisition of all rights, wissenmedia is ensuring the
survival of Brockhaus, a publishing house steeped in tradition
and one of Germany’s best known publishing brands. Part of
the inmediaONE] Group, a member of the arvato AG Group,
wissenmedia has a 50-year track record in publishing and a
rich heritage in encyclopaedias.

“We welcome the Cartel Office’s unconditional approval of the takeover," notes a delighted Christoph Hünermann, Managing
Director of wissenmedia GmbH, commenting on the anti-trust authority’s decision. “Now we finally have the go-ahead we need to integrate Brockhaus resources into our publishing operations, establishing a sound basis that ensures Brockhaus branded
reference works will be published for a long time to come and enabling us to develop new knowledge offerings." According to Hünermann, the acquisition of Brockhaus brand rights and contents also affords wissenmedia a unique opportunity to continue branching out its successful activities to all communication channels. With brands such as Bertelsmann Lexikon, WAHRIG, Chronik, and wissen.de, wissenmedia already has a range of media offerings geared to convey knowledge.

Asked which objectives wissenmedia aims to achieve with the takeover, Hünermann said, “We want to further develop the Brockhaus brand, cast it in an even brighter light, appeal to new target groups with high-quality offerings and serve legacy users even better. In a nutshell, we will extend Brockhaus across all platforms to build a leading knowledge, learning and education brand." In view of the changing media environment, wissenmedia will continue to cultivate its current offering, as well as develop new concepts.

 “We see diverse opportunities because education is an increasingly important issue on the public agenda," says Hünermann. What is more, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the individual can no longer handle the flood of information rushing in from the Internet and that the relevance of certified knowledge and orientation is growing daily. Hünermann notes, “We see enormous potential for the premium Brockhaus brand, which we will take advantage of not in a frantic rush, but with sound judgement and good concepts."

wissenmedia GmbH
A Bertelsmann arvato AG company, wissenmedia GmbH is today one of Germany’s leading media companies specialised in information and education. Its activities cover all available media platforms, including books, DVDs, audio, video, and online. wissenmedia carries well-known media brands such as Bertelsmann Lexikon, WAHRIG Wörterbücher, Chronik, wissen.de and q-world.de. Beyond that, wissenmedia is much in demand as a media service provider, furnishing consulting, conceptualising, producing, marketing and content services to partners and clients in over 30 countries.