Bonnier Group

Bonnier AB
Type Private
Industry media group
Founded 1804 (1804) in Copenhagen, Denmark
Headquarters Stockholm, Sweden
Key people Carl-Johan Bonnier (chairman)[1]
Jonas Bonnier (CEO)[2]
Products newspapers, books, magazines, television, cinemas, film production, radio
Revenue US$ 4.24 billion (2010)
Operating income US$ 211.25 million (2010)
Net income US$ 138.79 million (2010)
Employees 10,820 (2011)
Website bonnier.com

Bonnier AB (also the Bonnier Group) is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 17 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family.

The company was started in 1804 by the German Gerhard Bonnier in Copenhagen, Denmark, when Bonnier published his first book, Underfulde og sandfærdige kriminalhistorier. Gerhard's sons later moved to Sweden. The Bonnier book publishing companies in Sweden that are part of book publishing house Bonnierförlagen now include Albert Bonniers förlag, Wahlström & Widstrand, Forum, and Bonnier Carlsen, as well as several other book publishers and imprints in Sweden. Bonnier tidskrifter publishes magazines, including Veckans Affärer, Damernas Värld and nearly a dozen crossword magazines.[3] Other subsidiaries include Sweden's commercial TV network, TV4; movie theater chain SF Bio and film production companies Svensk Filmindustri and Sonet Films; daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, and Sydsvenskan; business daily Dagens industri; and medical journal Dagens Medicin.

In Denmark, operations include magazine publisher Bonnier Publications; business daily Dagbladet Børsen; and film distributors SF Film and film producers SF Film Production. Finnish operations include MTV Media Oy, which owns commercial channels MTV3 and Sub, among others; radio channel Radio Nova; book publisher Tammi; plus magazines from Bonnier Publications and film productions by FS Film.

In Norway, along with magazines from Bonnier Media and the movie chain SF Kino and film distribution company SF Norge, subsidiaries include book publisher Cappelen Damm.

In Germany, Bonnier Media Deutschland includes Ullstein Buchverlage, Piper Verlag, Thienemann Verlag and Carlsen Verlag, among others.

Bonnier book publishing operations are also established in the UK and in France, Australia and the USA, where it is part of the Bonnier Corporation. Bonnier also owns business newspapers in Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, and Bulgaria, as well as medical journals in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, and Slovenia. Bonnier is controlled by around 75 family members, including some seventh-generation heirs.

Time Inc. magazines acquisition

In January 2007, the Bonnier Magazine Group agreed to acquire 18 magazines that Time Inc. was divesting. The estimated price was US$ 225 million in cash and the assumption of about US$ 42 million in unfulfilled subscription liabilities (subscriptions already paid but not yet delivered.) The magazines in the package employed 550 people and included Outdoor Life, Popular Science, Field & Stream, Ski, Yachting, and Transworld Snowboarding, as well as 11 other titles that were part of Time Inc.'s Time4 Media Group. Also included were Parenting, and Babytalk, which were part of the Parenting Group. That price was believed to be a multiple of about 11 times cash flow for a group that had net income of around US$ 20 million and revenue of around $230 million.

"We think we did a good deal, and we think Time did as well," said Jonas Bonnier, head of Bonnier Magazine Group. Bonnier already had a small footprint in the US through a 50 percent stake in Winter Park, Florida-based World Publications, which owned the titles Islands and Spa, Saveur, Water Skiing, and Caribbean Travel & Life.[4]

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