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This privately-owned German media conglomerate is a global publishing giant with interests in roughly 600 companies and 53 countries. Its 1999 sales figures topped $13 billion. But its November 2000 agreement with Napster - lending $50 million to Napster to design file sharing technology that could download, for a price, music, film, television and books - fell apart in June 2002. Heading into 2003, new Bertelsmann management has been selling off some Internet acquisitions that had been pursued by the previous CEO, Thomas Middelhoff.[Note: The following breakdown reflects interests and assets as of early 2001.]

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AOL Europe (partial ownership)
Barnesandnoble.com (partial ownership with Barnes and Noble)
CDNow
Lycos Europe (partial ownership)
Napster (partial stake)
|  | Networks
FM Radio Network (Germany)
Stations
17 stations in France, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden
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Production/Distribution
UFA Film & TV Production (Germany)
Trebitsch Production (Germany)
Delux Productions (Luxembourg)
Cinevideo (Canada)
Holland Media House (Netherlands)
First Choice (U.K.)
Stations
16 stations in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, England, Poland, Hungary
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Books
Ballatine Publishing Group
Bantam Doubleday Dell
Bertelsmann Publishing Group
Book-of-the-Month Club (owned by AOL Time Warner, managed by
Bertelsmann)
Crown Publishing Group
Doubleday
Fodors Travel Publications
Knopf Publishing Group
Random House Inc.
Magazines
Gruner & Jahr
Child
Family Circle (majority owner)
Fitness
Inc.
McCall's (majority owner)
Parents (majority owner)
YM (majority owner) |
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Arista Records
BMG
BMG Music Publishing
BMG Music Service
RCA Records
Bad Boy Records
LaFace Records
Time Bomb Records
Windham Hill Group
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