Bertelsmann Grows Again in Q3 2020, Achieving Organic Growth of 1.6 percent
In the third quarter of 2020, Bertelsmann again achieved slight organic growth, further stabilizing its business during the Corona pandemic. This has significantly slowed the revenue decline in the year to date. The Group continues to benefit from the broad positioning of its corporate portfolio and high proportion of digital business models. Book publishing, the music business, Arvato’s services, and the education business once again proved to be particularly robust. The advertising markets also recovered in the third quarter. Bertelsmann’s revenues softened by 6.3 percent to €12.0 billion (previous year: €12.8 billion) in the period from January to September. Adjusted for portfolio and exchange rate effects, the decline in revenues was 4.8 percent. At the end of the first half of 2020, revenues had declined by 8.9 percent (organic: 7.9 percent). In the third quarter, the company recorded organic revenues growth of 1.6 percent.