A German multinational mass media corporation, founded in 1835. Based in Gütersloh, Germany. It founded the record label Ariola in 1958.
In 1979 Bertelsmann acquired Arista Records, but due to the crisis in the American music market caused by the general recession, Ariola sold 50% of Arista to RCA in 1983.
Two years later, Bertelsmann and RCA started a joint venture for their music divisions, RCA/Ariola Records. In December 1986, Bertelsmann purchased all of the joint venture's stock and became the owner of both RCA and Arista in the process. The RCA, Arista, and Ariola labels were united in early 1987 as Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG).
On August 5, 2004, BMG entered into a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment Inc., the resulting music company being named Sony BMG Music Entertainment. In August 2008, Sony acquired Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the company, and the new company became Sony Music Entertainment on January 1, 2009.
It is now an international media company encompassing television (RTL Group), book publishing (Penguin Random House, of which it owns 53%), magazine publishing (Gruner + Jahr), and media services (Arvato) in more than 50 countries.
BMG Rights Management, the successor of the original Bertelsmann Music Group, was founded shortly after Sony bought the original BMG’s recorded-music assets and Universal Music bought the original BMG’s publishing assets.