Gerd Schulte-Hillen has resigned as chairman of the supervisory board of Bertelsmann after losing a power struggle with company chief executive Gunter Thielen. In a statement, Bertelsmann said that Schulte-Hillen and Thielen had different views "on the strategic direction of the company." Since Thielen took over as chief executive in July 2002, following the ouster of Thomas Middelhoff, he has undone or scaled down many of Middelhoff's initiatives, with the full support of the Mohn family that controls Bertelsmann. Media reports said many junior executives at the company had supported Schulte-Hillen because he was the sole senior executive who favored having Bertelsmann run by independent managers rather than by the Mohn family and its allies. Bertelsmann vice-chairman Dieter Vogel is expected to succeed Schulte-Hillen.
Two of Thielen's major achievements during the year—the sale of Springer Verlag and the sale of its stake in Barnes & Noble.com—added 761 million euros ($905 million) to Bertelsmann's bottom line in the third quarter. Total sales for the period fell to 3.9 billion euros from 4.2 billion euros in last year's third quarter. Operating EBITA increased to 207 million euros from 116 million euros. There was no breakout of how Random House performed in the quarter. For the nine-month period, Bertelsmann's revenue fell to 11.7 billion euros from 13 billion euros, although EBITA rose 49%, to 435 million euros.
