Werner and Karin Mützel founded the Weka Specialist Publishing House for Public Authorities and Industry in 1973. Conceived as a German specialist publishing group with an international focus, Weka has grown to become a corporate group with more than 20 companies throughout Europe.
Since April 2001, the Weka Corporate Group has been structured in three divisions: Weka Business Information, Weka Media Group Munich and Creative Design.
Key Company Developments in 2012 & 2013
Financial:
The Weka group saw a 5.5% growth in revenues with international sales jumping from 217.1 million EUR in 2011 to 229.8 million EUR.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization:
During 2012, the Weka group acquired a number of companies across Europe. The French Weka daughter CMT bought Agricommand, located next to Marseille. Agricommand, which specializes in online services for agricultural chemistry, is the fifth French company to be incorporated. Weka Holding bought Info - Techno, an Austrian database vendor for building materials and tenders; Blogwerk, a Swiss social media agency; Cologne-based fotocommunity, the largest online photo community with 1.3 million members and 140 million hits each month; and Hoppenstedt, a publisher of B2B journals founded in 1926, purchased from the Swedish Bisnode Group. Hoppenstedt will now operate under the brand Weka Business Medien.
Weka’s media division acquired the German seminar vendor TQM Training & Consulting, which covers 100 subjects such as industrial safety, innovation, quality, and risk management.
International:
The Weka Group is present in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France. The share of revenues generated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland accounted for 186.9 million EUR, against 173 million EUR in 2011 (+8%).
Earlier Developments:
During 2011, Weka Holding acquired ZfU International Business School, Weka Media acquired foerderland.de (Mannheim), and Spitta acquired dent.com (Berlin).
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