On Bertelsmann: More French Stores, and the Unsung Division Bertelsmann will buy France’s Alsatia Group bookstore chain, with 22 stores and sales of $74 million last year. Earlier this year, the company bought independent French chain Privat. In a separate piece, Business Week points out that Bertelsmann’s Arvato division (which current CEO Gunther Thielen used to run) is the company’s second-leading unit in sales and profits. What started as a printing division has grown into a services-based growth engine. One analyst notes, “It’s basically handling customer resource management for big companies, and it’s an enormous contributor to the Bertelsmann group.” […]
