Bertelsmann CEO says more M&A coming as H1 revenue rises 2.3% to €9.3bn
Bertelsmann is scouting one or two more large acquisitions within months, CEO Thomas Rabe said this week, as the group builds on RTL Group's takeover of Sky Deutschland, completed this summer and already reshaping the German TV market. The company named the US, China, India, Germany and Brazil as priority markets for expansion. Alongside the M&A signal, Bertelsmann posted H1 2026 revenue of €9.3 billion, up 2.3 percent year-on-year, with organic growth of 5.1 percent, its highest in twenty years outside the pandemic-boosted H1 2021. Management now expects strong full-year revenue growth and a significant rise in adjusted operating profit, both figures it had previously guided flat.
A larger RTL-Sky combination leaves German advertisers negotiating with fewer, bigger sellers of TV inventory, and agencies running pan-European plans should track which of the named markets, the US, China, India, Germany or Brazil, sees the next deal land. Consolidation of this size tends to reset upfront terms and cross-platform packaging, so budget holders with exposure to RTL or Sky properties have reason to revisit their assumptions before the next negotiation cycle.