BERTELSMANN RECORDS A RISE IN NET PROFITS OF 2.6%.

Bertelsmann, the German media giant, announced on September 22 it had amassed net profits (after provision for depreciation on goodwill) of DM 910 million (Euro 465.20 million) over the course of the year ending June 30,1999, an increase of 2.6% on the previous fiscal year. In 1998/99, its turnover (including its 50% stake in CLT-UFA) rose 12.8% to DM 29 thousand million (Euro 14.83 billion). For the year 1999/2000, the group's Financial Director, Siegfried Luther, is predicting an increase of between 3 and 5%. In order to be able to make acquisitions, the group plans to float some subsidiaries on the stock exchange, Mr Luther added, without specifying which ones. Pixelpark, the Internet company, will in any case be floated in October. In publishing, where Bertelsmann is the world number one, the company's turnover was DM 8.321 billion (Euro 4.25 billion), a leap of 27.4%. This considerable increase is in large part due to its takeover of Random House. In the press domain, Gruner + Jahr, another Bertelsmann subsidiary, reached a turnover of DM 5.389 billion (Euro 2.76 billion), an increase of 5.1%. The group is Europe's largest publisher of...