Winter 2007 Contrarian’s Notebook

How much are “family values” worth to you, in actual dollars and cents? Can you measure the cash value of the “family premium” that your company enjoys over its faceless corporate competitors? Or does your obsession with family render you vulnerable to greenmail?

The Mohn family's recent desperate maneuverings at Bertelsmann should give you pause. Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media group, is a private concern, and the fifth generation of Mohns—whose great-great-grandfather founded Bertelsmann in 1835—were never in danger of losing control: They and their charitable foundation together have always held at least 74% of Bertelsmann stock. Yet this past year the Mohns spent billions to buy out a minority shareholder—not to avoid losing control, but to avoid a public listing of its stock and the public disclosure such a listing would require.

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