Why Random House Was Worth more with Bertelsmann

Conclusion
The future of publishing is at a crossroad as the business makes the transition from print to digital and from offline to online. Certain authors had already begun to bypass the publishers, wholesalers and retailers entirely by publishing their own work online. This changing trend in the publishing industry coupled with integration by retailers with book publishers does not paint a rosy picture for the future outlook of the publishing industry. Looking at the top 5 publishing companies, all of them are under the shelter of a big media conglomerates . Random House benefited in numerous ways from the Bertelsmann acquisition. It was able to gain competitive advantages in terms of operational resources that it would not have achieved as a stand alone company. Hence, it went from being a company that could not turn in a profit before the acquisition, to a company with a 10% Ebitda in 2001 .
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