For a research project, I would like someone to investigate the
Internet interests of 16 European media conglomerates.
The aim is to demonstrate that while only one of the US major US based
media conglomerates has a portal (AOL Time Warner), many European
media conglomerates do own an Internet portal.

Essentially I would like the following table filled out:

Conglomerate          Internet portal      Non-portal
                                           internet business

Reed-Elsevier
Pearson                                    FT.com
Reuters                                    Factiva
Sky                                        Skysports.com
Carlton

Vivendi Universal     Vizzavi sites
Lagadere

Bertelsmann           None (says the Economist)  Music, book clubs
Wolters Kluwer
Taurus (formerly Kirch)
Axel Springer
Holzbrinck

Mediaset SpA
Mondadon Editore
SEAT PG               www.Tin.it

Prisa (Italy)


The sources I would expect you to use would be:
1.	Annual Reports of these companies
2.	Company websites
3.	Yahoo! Finance (try also the local Yahoo Finance—especially if you
speak the appropriate language)
4.	Economist.com article “Tangled Webs”, 23 May 2002, available free
at the Economist website.
5.	Searching the Yahoo and Dmoz directories

I believe that this will constitute about 3/4 a day of research and
this is priced accordingly.  I need this information by noon (GMT) on
Thursday 2 January.

---

Clarification of Question by victorchua-ga on 31 Dec 2002 11:49 PST

I forgot to mention, you can always get the annual reports in PDF
format from the company websites under "Investor Information".

Hello victorchua-ga,

That was quite a project and I learned a lot about today’s media
conglomerates. Some of these companies have dozens of holdings. I’ve
completed your table and I’m attaching it in Word format at the
address below where you can access it for the next 30 days.

Europe Table
http://www.lucidmatrix.com/uploads/Europe Table.doc

I hope that you find this information helpful. 

Happy New Year!

czh

SEARCH STRATEGY
Checked each company’s Web site and followed the links to as many
subsidiaries as possible.

---

Clarification of Answer by czh-ga on 31 Dec 2002 21:20 PST

When I tested the link it didn't work. This should do it.

http://www.lucidmatrix.com/uploads/Europe%20Table.doc

czh

---

Request for Answer Clarification by victorchua-ga on 01 Jan 2003 11:54 PST

Thank you.  Before I rate your answer, though, I would like to request
some additional clarification.

Firstly, while I'm impressed by the detail in the English companies
and Vivendi, I am a little concerned about the patchiness of the
information on the German and Italian and Spanish companies.  In
particular, I would like more information on Bertelsman, Lagardere,
Mediaset, and Prisa.  Remember, the kind of internet portal I'm
looking for is more like AOL or MSN or Freeserve in the UK - large
consumer portals rather than specialist scientific portals.

In particular I'm surprised that Bertelsmann and Lagardere and
Mediaset do not have consumer portals -- they have everything else and
they are enormous media companies.

Secondly, I would like to get an idea of the level of confidence you
have in saying that for example Bertelsmann does *not* have a consumer
internet portal.  I think that to have this confidence you may need to
not just follow links off the main corporate site but also to look at
their annual reports.  Have you managed to look at them?  If you have
them handy, it would be great to have the annual reports gathered into
one huge ZIP file which I could download.  This is not required, but
would be helpful should I need to delve into this further.

Essentially, what you have found is that the big European media
conglomerates do *not* own consumer portals apart from Vivendi
(Vizzavi) and Seat (Tins).  I I am very surprised at this.

---

Clarification of Answer by czh-ga on 01 Jan 2003 21:20 PST

Hello again,
I was as surprised as you are about the results of the research. As
you requested, I'll dig deeper to increase your confidence in the
results. I should have something to you by tomorrow morning.
czh

---

Clarification of Answer by czh-ga on 02 Jan 2003 01:22 PST

Hello again victorchua-ga,

>Thank you.  Before I rate your answer, though, I would like to
request
>some additional clarification.

I¡¯ve done some additional research to gain a better understanding of
the European portal markets. I think I've found some interesting
information that will clarify the original research results.
 
>Firstly, while I'm impressed by the detail in the English companies
>and Vivendi, I am a little concerned about the patchiness of the
>information on the German and Italian and Spanish companies.  In
>particular, I would like more information on Bertelsman, Lagardere,
>Mediaset, and Prisa.  Remember, the kind of internet portal I'm
>looking for is more like AOL or MSN or Freeserve in the UK - large
>consumer portals rather than specialist scientific portals.

The information I¡¯ve collected is a correct representation of the
situation of the companies on your list. To find out who are the major
players in the European portal space I did some additional searching
and discovered that much of the major activity is controlled by ISPs
¨C just as AOL and MSN are ISPs. I¡¯ve identified a list of
competitors that is included in several fee-based research reports.
I¡¯m including a variety of resources to help you with evaluating
whether you might want to pay for a market report.

>In particular I'm surprised that Bertelsmann and Lagardere and
>Mediaset do not have consumer portals -- they have everything else
and
>they are enormous media companies.

I¡¯ve double-checked my research and I¡¯m including some additional
links for each of these companies. They all have some Internet
properties and have been active with both acquisitions and
divestitures. None of them seem to have mega-portal properties like
AOL or Yahoo!
 
>Secondly, I would like to get an idea of the level of confidence you
>have in saying that for example Bertelsmann does *not* have a
consumer
>internet portal.  I think that to have this confidence you may need
to
>not just follow links off the main corporate site but also to look at
>their annual reports.  Have you managed to look at them?  If you have
>them handy, it would be great to have the annual reports gathered
into
>one huge ZIP file which I could download.  This is not required, but
>would be helpful should I need to delve into this further.

I¡¯ve checked the financial documents posted on the company Web sites.
You can easily review them as well. They confirm the lack of major
consumer portal holdings. I¡¯ve also included some recent news items
to help you get an impression of why this might be true.
 
>Essentially, what you have found is that the big European media
>conglomerates do *not* own consumer portals apart from Vivendi
>(Vizzavi) and Seat (Tins).  I I am very surprised at this.

As I said above, it seems that the major portals are sponsored by ISPs
or telecom companies. I recommend that you look at some of the market
research reports I¡¯ve listed. They might give you the extra level of
comfort to confirm my research finding.

I wish you success with your project.

czh

================================
ISP/PORTAL COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
================================

http://www.idate.fr/an/multi/portail/portails.pdf
Consumer portals: gearing up for broadband 
http://www.gii.co.jp/english/iu8300_consumer_portalsb_toc.html
Consumer Portals: Gearing up for Broadband
Pub Time: 2001/10
US $ 2700 (Online Version)

Players' strategies
-------------------
Wanadoo (France Telecom) 
MSN (Microsoft) 
Terra-Lycos (Telef¨®nica) 
Yahoo ! 
Tiscali 
AOL-Time Warner 
T-Online (Deutsche Telekom) 
Seat-Tin.It (Telecom Italia) 
BT Openworld (BT) 
Vivendi Universal 
NBCi (NBC) 
Bertelsmann 
Chello (UPC) 
Noos 

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2002/tc2002021_2922.htm
FEBRUARY 1, 2002 
AOL Europe: Well, It's Not America
Stiff competition, pricing difficulties, and strategic miscues have
cast doubt on the parent company's overseas strategy

http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Report/Summary/0,1338,13297,00.html
Portals' Broadband Facelift
Report: November 2001
Price: US$1,349.00
Length: 20 page(s)

http://www.budde.com.au/TOC/TOC1527.html
Web Reports
Europe - Major Market Players
Last updated on Tuesday December 3, 2002
File size is 38K
Number of Pages 8
Price: US$30.00 EX GST (Member Discounts Apply)

http://www.cjr.org/owners/
Who Owns What
Media companies continue to grow, and a shrinking number of them shape
what we view and read.

http://www.businessweek.com/2001/01_02/b3714216.htm
BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JANUARY 8, 2001 ISSUE
Terra Lycos: Mano a Mano with Yahoo?
Spain's Web powerhouse is looking to buy more portals
¡°Terra Lycos also ranks as Europe's biggest online distributor of
music, books, and other entertainment--thanks to German multimedia
giant Bertelsmann, which owns 20% of Lycos Europe. Bertelsmann will
spend $1 billion selling its products on Terra's portals over the next
five years.¡±

http://traffick.com/
The Guide to Portals and Search Engines

http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,788335,00.html
We can provide for you 
As the number of European internet users outstrips those in the US,
Bobbie Johnson looks at the companies fighting to be the continent's
top ISP
Monday September 9, 2002
http://www.t-online.de/
German and international ISP and portal provider.
http://www.wanadoo.com/accueil_en.htm
Our portals and information sites include voila.fr (with its powerful
search engine), pagesjaunes.fr (a directly enriched with maps and
photos), and mappy.fr for route planning. These simple yet extremely
efficient sites have quickly become favourites among French Internet
users.
http://www.tiscali.com
Tiscali S.p.A (Tiscali) is a leading European internet and
telecommunications service provider, offering integrated internet
access, portal and e-commerce services along with innovative voice and
data transmission services.

http://www.nua.com/surveys/
http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=FS&cat_id=22
Portals and ISPs

=========
LAGARDERE
=========

http://www.lagardere.com/us/sites/index.cfm
Explore the rich diversity of the world of Lagard¨¨re by surfing all
the group's sites!
Under this heading you can explore our sites by business line and
carry out keyword searches of all Lagard¨¨re's web sites...
http://www.lagardere.com/us/pdf/repere/reperes2002_gb.pdf
http://www.lagardere.com/us/groupe/docref2001gb/ra2001uk.htm
Financial report ¨C Only addresses Internet interests in passing

http://www.hfm.co.jp/eng/company/lagardere.htm
Lagardere - The Internet
Digitall.fr is an e-commerce portal exclusively devoted to multimedia,
entertainment, and music. Other portals include music£¨mcity.fr,
europe2.fr, rfm.fr, and mcm.net£©; news£¨parismatch.com and
europeinfos.com£©; and entertainment£¨joystick.fr, premiere.fr, and
t7j.com£©. Hachette Multimedia offers online and offline services and
content, and Le Studio Grolier provides online strategy services.

=============
BERTETELSMANN
=============

http://www.bertelsmann.com/index.cfm?oldBrowser=0
Corporate information and investor relations documents can be
downloaded
Nothing in the documentation indicates a major portal. Recent news
reports show various Internet strategies, investments and
acquisitions.

http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/1434501
July 29, 2002
Middelhoff Ousted From Bertelsmann
In what is becoming a recurring theme among media conglomerates,
German media giant Bertelsmann's Chief Executive Officer Thomas
Middelhoff has been fired after a dispute over the company's
direction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2157639.stm
Monday, 29 July, 2002, 11:47 GMT 12:47 UK 
Bertelsmann boss is ousted

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/06/1031115938225.html
September 7 2002
Bertelsmann's Internet vision fades to black
Like Vivendi, the German company is backing away from its '90s
new-media strategy.

http://www.ebrary.com/news/010604.02.jsp
ebrary Partners with Bertelsmann Subsidiary Springer-Verlag

========
MEDIASET
========

http://www.marketxs.com/benefits/cases.html
http://www.tgfin.it/ 
MediaSet, Italy's most important privately-owned communications and
broadcasting group and one of the largest in the world, operates its
internet activities through the central internet portal TG.com. The
financial section of TG.Com is called TG.Fin and is one of the most
visited financial portals in Italy. MediaSet selected the MarketXS
platform for powering the TG.Fin website, replacing the existing
providers. Through the MarketXS platform a range of international
indices and stock quotes are made available to TG.Fin customers, both
real time and delayed. Various applications are offered, including
charting and portfolio management. The MarketXS solution required only
a limited bandwidth connection between the website hosted in Italy and
the market data platform hosted by MarketXS. The portal itself was
built by Glamm, the local IT partner of MediaSet and the Italian
MarketXS integration partner, within 8 weeks.

This was a good answer to a complex and time consuming assignment. 
Well done!  I reserve 5 starts to the truly exceptional, so four stars
for this answer is intented to be a "pretty good".