Word: middelhoff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...simultaneously accessible and copyright protected.) The Germans agreed that once the new model is in place, Bertelsmann's subsidiary BMG Entertainment will make its music catalog available and drop out of the copyright-infringement lawsuit that Napster has been fighting for nine months. Even before the deal was announced, Middelhoff began working the phones to persuade his counterparts at Time Warner, Sony, Universal and EMI to do the same...
...explain the Bertelsmann culture and the Internet, the speed at which everything is changing and the importance of our similar thinking about the value of membership communities," recalls Middelhoff, stopping just short of delivering the sermon again. By the time they finished the $219 Phelps Insignia Cabernet, Fanning was entranced by the precision and the passion, and he walked back to his hotel convinced that the gregarious German with the rimless glasses and earnest gaze was a man he could trust...
...becomes a majority stakeholder in the world's largest community of online music enthusiasts, with 38 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...
Everything about the Napster partnership is classic Middelhoff. It is counterintuitive, iconoclastic and so bold as to be regarded with derision, if not anger, by some of his competitors. Bertelsmann may lack the cartoon rabbits or mice that make its competitors household brands, but under Middelhoff, it has become more global and more diverse than most of them. Last year the privately held company had sales of $13.7 billion and profits of $480 million. Its empire stretches from John Grisham's novels (Random House) to Whitney Houston's hit tunes (BMG), and from Family Circle magazine to Germany's most...
Even before Napster, Bertelsmann's e-empire spanned global Web brands, including partnerships with giant search engine TerraLycos, music sites CDNow and GetMusic and a 40% interest in Barnes&Noble.com Middelhoff claims that as of July, Bertelsmann was ahead of every competitor except the Walt Disney Co. in visitors to its online sites. "Speed, speed, speed" is the Middelhoff mantra. "The world is changing fast," he said over dinner in Germany last June. "Companies must continually reinvent themselves and not be tied to one structure...