Schibsted

Schibsted ASA

Type	Public
Founded	1839
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Key people	Rolv Erik Ryssdal (CEO), Ole Jacob Sunde (Chairman of the board)
Industry	Mass media
Revenue	NOK 13,740 million (2008)[1]
Operating income	▼ (NOK 254 million) (2008)[1]
Net income	▼ (NOK 906 million) (2008)[1]
Employees	9,000 (2008)[1]
Website	www.schibsted.com

Schibsted (OSE: SCH) is a Norwegian media conglomerate with operations in 20 countries, the most important being Norway and Sweden. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange.

Schibsted's present activities relate to media products and rights in the field of newspapers, television, film, publishing, multimedia and mobile services. Schibsted has ownership in a variety of formats; paper, the Internet, television, cinema, video, DVD and wireless terminals (mobile telephones, PDAs etc.).

Participations

Norway

Schibsted owns the two Oslo newspapers Aftenposten and Verdens Gang (VG), the second largest and largest newspapers in Norway, respectively. In addition the company has ownership in the newspapers Adresseavisen (34.3%), Budstikka (10.1%), Bergens Tidende (24.4%), Fædrelandsvennen (25.0%), Harstad Tidende (who also own Bladet Tromsø) (51.0%) and Stavanger Aftenblad (31.5%). Through Aftenposten and VG Schibsted controls 20.6% of the Norwegian News Agency and 100% of online financial newspaper E24 Næringsliv.^[2]

Sweden

In Sweden Schibsted owns Aftonbladet, the Nordic countries largest newspaper and Svenska Dagbladet. Schibsted owns the largest TV and film production company in the Nordic area, Metronome Film & Television and the distribution company Metronome. In addition Schibsted owns the leading classified service Blocket.se and the largest catalogue service; Hitta.se[1]. Schibsted also publishes a number of magazines.

Europe

Schibsted owns 20 Min Holding AG which participates in the publication of various editions of the free daily newspapers, such as 20 minutes in France and 20 minutos in Spain. The Swiss edition 20 Minuten is now part of Tamedia Group. The Russian free weekly My region ("Мой район") is the latest addition.

History

In 1839 Christian Michael Schibsted founded the publishing company Schibsteds Forlag and in 1860 he started publishing Christiania Adresseblad, from 1885 known as Aftenposten. In 1966 Schibsted acquired VG.

In 1989, under the leadership of Tinius Nagell-Erichsen, Schibsted went from being a family owned company to a corporation, and was listed on Oslo Stock Exchange in 1992. Kjell Aamot has been CEO since 1989. In the 1990s and 2000s Schibsted bought a number of international newspapers.

In 2006 Schibsted acquired Anuntis-Segundamano from Trader Classified Media.

Finn.no

On March 17th 2000, Schibsted launched its online service for classified advertisements in the Norwegian market, which came to be known as Finn.no (meaning "to search" or "to find" in Norwegian) Finn.no. Finn had first been launched in print in Schibsted's newspapers, to build awareness and credibility in the Norwegian market. The online launch of the service could not have come at a worse time - it was launched immediately after the dot.com-bubble burst^[3].

In spite of this, Finn.no had by 2005 grown to become Norway's largest and most comprehensive site for classified advertising, such as real estate and used vehicles. As of 2009, the site still retain this position.

Sesam search engine

Schibsted also developed and launched an internet search engine in the Norwegian and Swedish markets in 2005, known as Sesam. At a point in time, it was among the most trafficed sites in Norway, but as of 2009, the sites had been closed down in both markets.

See also

List of oldest companies

External links

• Official site
• Finn.no
• Sesam.no

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Annual Results 2008". Schibsted. http://hugin.info/131/R/1293752/293218.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
2. ^ Norwegian Media Registry
3. ^ Anand, Hood. Case: Schibsted. April 16th, 2007. Harvard Business School