(One 30-minute segment)

Begin­ning with dis­cus­sion of Ber­tels­mann A.G. (the cen­tral com­pany in the Ger­man con­trol over Amer­i­can pub­lish­ing), the broad­cast high­lights the role of Ber­tels­mann king­pin Hein­rich Mohn’s asso­ci­a­tion with the Himm­lerkreis, the indus­tri­al­ists who funded Hitler’s noto­ri­ous SS.

Much of the pro­gram deals with the rela­tion­ship between the Ber­tels­mann firm and AOL. Fol­low­ing AOL’s acqui­si­tion of Time Warner, Ber­tels­mann CEO Thomas Mid­del­hoff resigned as a mem­ber of AOL’s board of direc­tors. Ber­tels­mann will con­tinue its joint oper­a­tion of AOL Europe, while sell­ing its remain­ing direct cap­i­tal par­tic­i­pa­tion in AOL. AOL’s growth was greatly aided by timely invest­ments by Ber­tels­mann (at Middelhoff’s direc­tion), which at one point owned 5% of AOL. Although Mid­del­hoff saw Ber­tels­mann as a more appro­pri­ate part­ner for AOL, the Ber­tels­mann foun­da­tion (which con­trols the 164-year-old com­pany) rejected that pos­si­bil­ity. Valu­ing the company’s inde­pen­dence, the foun­da­tion may very well have rejected the deal because the Bor­mann group (which under­lies Ber­tels­mann and the other major Ger­man cor­po­ra­tions) wished to have its media influ­ence undi­luted by Amer­i­can influence.

Pro­gram High­lights Include: Deutsche Bank’s sig­nif­i­cant cap­i­tal par­tic­i­pa­tion in AOL; for­mer Gen­er­als Alexan­der Haig and Colin Powell’s seats on AOL’s board of direc­tors; changes in the cap­i­tal invest­ment pol­icy of Ber­tels­mann, intended to facil­i­tate more cor­po­rate acqui­si­tions; Middelhoff’s stated inten­tion to become num­ber one in the U.S. music busi­ness; dis­cus­sion of recent Ber­tels­mann cor­po­rate alliances; Middelhoff’s pro­fes­sional rela­tion­ship with for­mer Pres­i­dent (and CIA direc­tor) George Bush; Bertelsmann’s nego­ti­a­tions with Sony music, directed at ful­fill­ing Middelhoff’s desire to dom­i­nate the music busi­ness. (Recorded on 2/13/2000.)