COMPANY TOWN : MORE ON COMPANY TOWN : U.S. Leads Sales for Bertelsmann

German media giant Bertelsmann said on Wednesday that the United States has become its biggest national revenue generator, driven in large part by robust expansion in its online business.

The group, which is Europe’s largest media concern in terms of sales and is privately owned, said that its U.S. operations generated $4.8 billion in revenue in 1998-99, an increase of more than 25% from the year before.

“The United States has become Bertelsmann’s strongest market,” Bertelsmann Chief Executive Thomas Middelhoff said, adding that its U.S. sales had nearly tripled in the last decade.

The year saw Bertelsmann become the world’s largest publisher of English-language books when it acquired U.S.-based Random House.