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TIME.com ON AOL For the latest updates on the undecided presidential election, go to time.com
...million potential new customers not just for its music offerings but ultimately for books and movies and videos as well--the stuff that Internet types call content. "This could be really amazing," gushes Middelhoff, who is rarely able to contain his enthusiasm over a good opportunity. "This is like AOL in the beginning, a new community that we can build around the world. AOL is the example...
...envelop its local borough of Gutersloh (population 78,414). In 1995, shortly after he was named head of corporate strategy, Middelhoff persuaded the tightfisted Bertelsmann board to gamble $50 million on a 5% stake in a nascent Internet company called America Online. It was a masterstroke. The $50 million AOL investment turned into $1.8 billion and propelled him into the president's suite...
Before taking office, Middelhoff spent a year in the U.S., improving his English and trying to get to know every media bigwig in the States. He and AOL CEO Steve Case became good friends, and Case began to introduce Middelhoff around. Although he may have that steely look and the precision dress of a Frankfurt banker, his new media friends discovered Middelhoff to be a man of surprising charm and easy humor. That down-homeness may reflect his roots. He lives on a farm outside Gutersloh with his wife, five children, 45 cows and sheep, and a duck pond. "Thomas...
...January, the Bertelsmann train was sidetracked. Middelhoff's good friend Steve Case announced that AOL was buying Time Warner (TIME's parent company), and other media megamergers left little room for the big deal that might seal a No. 1 content position for Bertelsmann. The private Bertelsmann's board has a deep-rooted aversion to debt. So Middelhoff redoubled his efforts to reorganize the company around digital content and in one stroke sold off its stake in a string of companies before the dotcom meltdown. That netted an estimated $15 billion in cash ($8 billion from AOL Europe alone...