RCS MediaGroup

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RCS MediaGroup S.p.A.
Type	Public (BIT: RCS)
Founded	1927 as A. Rizzoli & Co.
Headquarters	Milan, Italy
Key people	Angelo Rizzoli (founder) Cesare Romiti (Honorary Chairman) Piergaetano Marchetti (Chairman) Antonio Perricone CEO
Industry	print media
Products	magazines newspapers
Revenue	▲ €2,379.7 million Euro (2008)
Net income	▲ €219.5 million Euro (2008)
Website	www.rcsmediagroup.it

RCS MediaGroup S.p.A. (BIT: RCS) is an Italian international multimedia publishing group, based in Milan and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.

Contents 1 History 2 Operations 2.1 Divisions 3 Ownership 4 Timeline 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

Founded in 1927 by entrepreneur Angelo Rizzoli as A. Rizzoli & Co., it started in the press industry by buying out four national magazines, and later entering the publishing industry. Restructured and taken over a number of times, particularly in the 1980s when two of its executives became involved in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and the illegal Masonic lodge Propaganda Due - or P2. Following the 1982 death of Roberto Calvi, the group applied for bankruptcy protection and greatly downsized.^[1]

[edit] Operations

RCS MediaGroup's operation five it five divisions includes newspapers, magazines and books, radio broadcasting, the internet and digital and satellite TV; it also has a division which handles advertising sales & distribution markets across all media divisions. In Italy The group manages large daily newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, publish popular magazines including Novella 2000 and Il Mondo; and a diverse range of school, university, and business publications.^[1]

40% of group sales are generated outside Italy. In Spain through Unedisa it publishes leading daily newspaper El Mundo, and in France through the publishing company Groupe Flammarion.^[1] It also has representation in Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States and China. Already distributing the Italian version, in March 2008, RCS reached agreement with Global Media Publishing to launch a Russian version of its Sport Week magazine and develop a Russian language website sportweek.ru, which will be supplemented with mobile phone services.^[2]

The financial investment division holds interest in the capital of major Italian companies, including Banca Intesa, the internet company Dada, and Pirelli (which holds a complimentary cross-holding).^[1]

The company employs 5,197 employees, of which 3,354 are based in Italy, and the remaining mainly in Spain (1,024) and France (694).^[3]

[edit] Divisions

• RCS Newspapers - Corriere della Sera
• RCS Periodicals - magazines
• RCS Books
• RCS Advertising
• AGR - RCS - news agency, which provides news and editorial content on radio, television and regional Italian web sites
• RCS Broadcast: monitors radio investments
• Digicast - publisher of digital channels, distributed in Italy through Sky Italia
• RCS Digital - manages group websites
• Dada.net - mobile telephony web entertainment. Controlled to 41.9% from November 2005

[edit] Ownership

On January 26, 2005 shareholders which control 63.527% of ordinary share capital came to a shareholders' agreement freezing, the participants from selling or trading their holdings. On March 14, 2008 the Consob group agreed to extend their agreement for another three years until 2011.^[4] The members and holdings of the Consob group are:^[5][6]

• Mediobanca SpA - 14.029%
• Fiat - 10.291%; through Fiat Partecipazioni Spa
• Efiparind BV family Pesenti - 7.748%, of which:
• Dorint Holding AG family Della Valle - 5.499%
• Premafin Finanziaria SpA family Ligresti - 5.462%
• Pirelli & C SpA represented by Marco Tronchetti Provera - 5.166%
• Intesa Sanpaolo represented by Corrado Passera - 5.065%
• Assicurazioni Generali - 3.762%
• Group Merloni represented by Francesco Merloni - 2.090% through Merloni Invest Spa
• Sinpar Society of investments and holdings Spa, financial Family Lucchini - 2060%

Other major shareholders outside the Consob group include:

• Benetton Group - 5.001%
• Group UBS - 5.951%; through Ubs Trust Spa
• Banco Popular - 5.951%
• Si.To. Financiere SA - 5.140%; through Partecipazioni Srl Editorials
• Joseph Rotelli - 3.949%; through Pandette Financial Corp.. Rotelli has an option to purchase the share held by Banco Popular

[edit] Timeline

The timeline of the company:^[7]

• 1927 - Angelo Rizzoli launches publishing activities at his printing company “A. Rizzoli & C.”
• 1952 - company is renamed “Rizzoli Editore”
• 1974 - company purchases “Editoriale Corriere della Sera S.a.s.”, which publishes the daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera
• 1976 - company takes over management of La Gazzetta dello Sport
• 1984 - Gemina acquires controlling holding of Rizzoli
• 1990 - acquisition of holding in Spanish company Unidad Editorial S.A., the present day holding of which is 96.1%
• 1997 - Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera is separated from Gemina’s other industrial activities, which are transferred to the new HdP company
• 2000 - acquisition of French publishing house Editions Flammarion
• 2001 - creation of Fondazione Corriere della Sera
• 2002 - acquisition of holding in Dada S.p.A., which at present stands at 46.54%
• 2003 - company is renamed RCS MediaGroup
• 2006 - acquisition of first holding in Digicast, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary
• 2007 - acquisition, through Unidad Editorial, of Spanish publishing group Recoletos Grupo de Comunicaciòn
• 2007 - acquisition of 34.6% of Finelco Group
• 2008 - acquisition, through Unidad Editorial, of 100% of VEO Television (already held at 55,4%)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• RCS MediaGroup - corporate website
• RCS MediaGroup in Italian at Wikipedia Italia
• RCS MediaGroup profile at Business Week