grunerjahr

Bertelsmann AG Buying Harper Collins For $1 Billion?

Maggie · 12/20/07 02:35PM

Yesterday, a German magazine reported an unsourced rumor that media giant Bertelsmann AG will takeover Harper Collins for the bargain price of $1 billion. CNN picked up the story as did Forbes, but Reuters reported that a News Corp source had told them Rupert Murdoch's company "is not in discussions with Europe's biggest media company Bertelsmann AG BERT.UL or any other party on the sale of its book publisher HarperCollins." A Bertelsmann spokesperson said "I will not comment on that," when we called today. Bertelsmann was also rumored to be ditching their stake in magazine subsidiary Gruner + Jahr, but the company denied that today—they also announced they won't be buying the remaining shares of European broadcast company RTL that they don't already own. Know more? Let us know!