Bonnier AB
TypePrivate company
Industry
Founded1804 (1804) in Copenhagen, Denmark
Headquarters
Stockholm
,
Sweden
Area served
Sweden
Key people
Carl-Johan Bonnier (chairman)[1]
Tomas Franzén (CEO)[2]
ProductsNewspapers, books, magazines, television and film production, online retailers
RevenueIncrease US$4.097 billion (2013)
Increase US$305 million (2013)
Increase US$227 million (2013)
Number of employees
9,226 (2013)
Websitebonnier.com

Bonnier AB (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈbʊ̂nːiːr]), also the Bonnier Group,[3] is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family.[4]

Background

The company was founded in 1804[5] by Gerhard Bonnier in Copenhagen, Denmark, when Bonnier published his first book, Underfulde og sandfærdige kriminalhistorier. Gerhard's sons later moved to Sweden. The Bonnier book publishing companies in Sweden that are part of book publishing house Bonnierförlagen now include Albert Bonniers förlag, Wahlström & Widstrand, Forum, and Bonnier Carlsen, as well as other book publishers and imprints in Sweden. Bonnier Tidskrifter publishes magazines, including Veckans Affärer, Damernas Värld, Amelia, Sköna hem, Teknikens Värld, Resume, nearly a dozen crossword magazines,[6] and the tablet magazine C Mode. Other subsidiaries include the film production companies SF Studios and Sonet Film; daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, Sydsvenskan and Helsingborgs Dagblad;[7] business daily Dagens Industri; and medical journal Dagens Medicin.

International operations

In Denmark, operations include magazine publisher Bonnier Publications, which has subsidiaries in Norway, Finland and Sweden; business daily Dagbladet Børsen; film distributors SF Film and film producers SF Film Production.

Finnish operations include book publishers Tammi and WSOY; plus magazines from Bonnier Publications and film productions by FS Film.

In Germany, Bonnier Media Deutschland includes Ullstein Buchverlage, Piper Verlag, Thienemann Verlag and Carlsen Verlag, among others.

In Malta, Bonnier owned Evoke Gaming Ltd.[8] This was divested in late 2017.[9]

In January 2007, the Bonnier Magazine Group acquired 18 magazines from the American media company Time Inc. (at the time owned by Time Warner) and merged the operations with other publishing companies to create the U.S. based Bonnier Corporation.[10] As a result, Bonnier Corporation owns over 40 magazines, including Popular Science, Saveur, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Popular Photography, a range of action sport magazines focused on motorcycling, as well as a number of niche travel and lifestyle titles.[11] Book publisher Weldon Owen was also part of the company. In 2013, Bonnier signed a deal with Source Interlink where they bought motorcycle franchises Dirt Rider, Motorcyclist, Sport Rider, Motorcycle Cruiser, Hot Bike, Baggers, Super Streetbike, Street Chopper and ATV Rider, whereas they sold Sound & Vision and the TransWorld franchise.

Bonnier’s publishing in the United Kingdom has two main divisions: Igloo Books and Bonnier Books UK. A number of imprints operate within each division, most notably: Blink, Autumn Publishing, Hot Key Books, John Blake Publishing, Embla, Templar Publishing and Piccadilly Press,[12] Zaffre and Studio Press. In 2015, Bonnier UK acquired commercial fiction publisher Totally Entwined.[13] Weldon Owen UK and US was sold to Insight Editions in 2018.[14]

Former operations include Piccolia in France and Five Mile Press in Australia which have both been liquidated.

Bonnier Publishing USA was formed in August 2016, then composed of the publisher Weldon Owen and the children's publisher, Little Bee. The president of Little Bee, Shimul Tolia, became the CEO of this group.[15] Bonnier Publishing USA was sold to its management in 2019.[16]

Bonnier owns business newspapers in Estonia (Äripäev), Lithuania (Verslo žinios), Poland (Puls Biznesu) and Slovenia (Finance Business Daily), as well as medical journals in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, and Slovenia.

Bonnier is also behind several digital startups, including the tablet publishing platform Mag+ and children's toy app producer, Toca Boca (sold in 2016 to Spin Master).

In 2017, the Bonnier Motorcycle Group bought the AMA EnduroCross Championship, an off-road motorcycling series. The group also promotes the Quail Motorcycle Gathering, HighPipe, Track Day Shootout, Adventure Rally Series and Hot Bike Tour. Also in 2017, Bonnier sold Nordic Cinema Group to AMC Theatres.[17]

On 20 July 2018, Telia Company announced the proposed acquisition of the Bonnier Broadcasting Group (which owns TV4 AB, MTV Oy and C More Entertainment) from Bonnier.[18] The acquisition was completed on 2 December 2019.[19]

On 6 February 2020, Bonnier Books UK launched literary imprint, Manilla Press.[20]

Ownership

Bonnier is controlled by around 75 family members, including some seventh-generation heirs. Some well-known relatives and descendants of the Bonnier family include:

Time Inc. magazines acquisition

In January 2007, the Bonnier Magazine Group agreed to acquire 18 magazines that Time Inc. was divesting.[10] The estimated price was US$225 million in cash and the assumption of about US$42 million in unfulfilled subscription liabilities (subscriptions already paid but not yet delivered.) The magazines in the package employed 550 people and included Outdoor Life, Popular Science, Field & Stream, Ski, Yachting, and Transworld Snowboarding, as well as 11 other titles that were part of Time Inc.'s Time4 Media Group. Also included were Parenting and Babytalk, which were part of the Parenting Group. That price was believed to be a multiple of about 11 times cash flow for a group that had net income of around US$20 million and revenue of around $230 million.

"We think we did a good deal, and we think Time did as well," said Jonas Bonnier, head of the Bonnier Magazine Group. Bonnier already had a small footprint in the US through a 50 percent stake in Winter Park, Florida-based World Publications, which owned the titles Islands and Spa, Saveur, Water Skiing, and Caribbean Travel & Life.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "Board of Directors". Bonnier AB. Archived from the original on 27 December 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  2. ↑ "Top Management". Bonnier AB. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  3. ↑ "Bonnier AB". InsideView. Archived from the original on 26 January 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Global Publishing Leaders 2012: Bonnier". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Bonnier AB". Linkedin. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Bonnier Korsord – Om oss." Archived 2 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine Krysset.se. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  7. ↑ "Tidningsaffären ingen heroisk investering". Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Bonnier". www.bonnier.com. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  9. ↑ "Annual review" (PDF). www.bonnier.com. 2017.
  10. 1 2 "Bonnier Magazine Group Buys 18 Magazines from Time Inc". Time Warner. New York, NY. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "Bonnier Magazine Group publishes more than 150 magazines in seven countries". Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  12. ↑ "Templar Publishing Buys Piccadilly Press". Publishers Weekly. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  13. ↑ Blakey, Heidi (26 June 2015). "Totally Entwined Group becomes part of the Bonnier Publishing family". Totally Entwined Group. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  14. ↑ "Insight Editions Buys Weldon Owen". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  15. ↑ Millot, Jim. "Bonnier Publishing Plans $100 Million U.S. Book Division". Publishers Weekly.
  16. ↑ "Little Bee Books Acquired by Founding Execs". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  17. ↑ Frater, Patrick (23 January 2017). "Wanda Expands Global Theater Reach as AMC Pays $929 Million for Nordic Cinema". Variety. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Telia köper Bonnier Broadcasting – blir storägare till TV4". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  19. ↑ "Telia Company completes acquisition of Bonnier Broadcasting". www.teliacompany.com. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  20. ↑ "Bonnier Books UK launches literary imprint Manilla Press". Bonnier Books UK. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  21. ↑ Byggherren som satsar allra högst, Dagens Nyheter 4 oktober 2013
  22. ↑ Kelly, Keith J. (26 January 2007). "Bonnier Coughed Up $225M to Time". New York Post. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
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