Bertelsmann Names Middelhoff Chairman

Bertelsmann, Europe’s biggest media conglomerate, said the man who has driven the company’s push into multimedia and Internet-related services will become its chairman next year. The choice of Thomas Middelhoff, the 44-year-old board member in charge of corporate development and multimedia, to replace outgoing Chairman Mark Woessner signals a generation change aimed at steering the group into the Information Age. The company said in a statement that Middelhoff would maintain Bertelsmann’s long tradition of a “balanced mix” of businesses. Separately, the company said it will help America Online Inc. sweeten its $1-billion bid to buy rival online service CompuServe Corp., the Wall Street Journal Europe reported, citing people close to the transaction. Bertelsmann would pay an unspecified amount of cash toward the transaction, the Journal said.