Schibsted

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.

Today

The group is currently organized into Online Classifieds, Schibsted Media House Norway, Sweden Schibsted Media House and Media Houses International. The group is mainly grown through acquisitions since the IPO in 1992, when Schibsted was purely a Norwegian group, which consisted of wholly owned operations Aftenposten, Verdens Gang and Schibsted Trykk and minority stakes in six regional and local newspapers in Norway.

Schibsted has approximately 6,900 employees and operates in 29 countries. In addition to Norway, the company is also a major player on the Swedish market and operates in further 14 European countries (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania, Greece and Belarus), eight countries in Asia and the Pacific (India, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and New Zealand), 12 countries in Latin America (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) as well as five African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Nigeria). In the majority of these countries are run only online-based businesses.

Other countries

Schibsted owns 41% of the Swiss company 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.

Media Houses

Schibsted owns many of the biggest newspapers in Norway and Sweden, and is also engaged in news media businesses in other European companies, including France and Spain. The media houses represent a part of Schibsted’s core businesses.

In Norway, collaboration between the newspapers Aftenposten, Bergens Tidende, Stavanger Aftenblad and Fædrelandsvennen was formalized through the establishment of the media company Media Norge. In 2012, VG was added and the company changes name to Schibsted Norge. The objective is to take advantage of the economies of scale which editorial and commercial collaboration can offer. This will help the media houses fulfill their primary tasks in a good way while still ensuring a high editorial quality.

Schibsted Sverige was established in Sweden in 2009. This collaboration comprises all the underlying businesses in Aftonbladet and the SvD group. From December 2010, Schibsted’s Swedish activities are gathered under one roof in Kungsbrohuset in Stockholm.

Schibsted Classified Media

Schibsted Classified Media (SCM) operate most of Schibsted's online classifieds business. SCM have operations in several mature markets in Western Europe and in growing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. It includes the following sites:

Growth

Schibsted Growth invests in digital companies. Growth helps founders and teams to establish products or services, scale their business, maximize growth and ultimately to become market leaders.

Schibsted Growth have made investments in companies like Blocket, Prisjakt, Hitta, TV.nu, Let's Deal, Lendo, Pubfront and many more.

Owners

As of December 2014, American and European banks and financial services companies hold significant stakes in Schibsted. They include J. P. Morgan (7.86%), Northern Trust (4.19%), The Bank of New York Mellon (2.47%), Clearstream (1.98%), Morgan Stanley (1.83%), UBS (1.75%), Goldman Sachs (1.72%), State Street Bank and Trust Company (1.07%), Credit Suisse (1.05%), and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (1.03%). These figures could be higher, as 32.96% of the shares are controlled by unspecified owners.

The single largest stockholder is Blommenholm industrier (26.1%).