Egmont (media group)
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Egmont is one of the leading media industry groups of Scandinavia. Founded by Egmont Harald Petersen in 1878 as a one-man printing business, the company's headquarters is still based in Copenhagen, Denmark. After the Second World War Egmont acquired a license from Disney, and in 1948 the company started to publish Kalle Anka & C:o, a Donald Duck comic magazine in Sweden. With the acquisition in 1963 of the Danish publisher Aschehoug, Egmont also entered the book market. The company also controls 50% of the Norwegian television channel TV 2.
In 1991, Egmont purchased the Fleetway arm of IPC Media in the UK from Robert Maxwell, and thus became Britain's largest comic book publisher. The resultant company, Fleetway Editions, was absorbed into the main Egmont brand by 2000, having largely divested itself of its original portfolio (such as 2000AD) and continued with only reprint and licensed material titles (e.g. Sonic The Comic).
Today, Egmont produces weeklies, magazines, comics, books, film, TV-programmes, textbooks, games, content for mobile services, music and electronic entertainment. Egmont has activities in 23 countries, and around 3,800 employees. Total revenues in 2005 was 1.17 billion euro, in 2006 was 1.236 billion euro. As a foundation profits are reinvested and donated to various social and cultural causes.
