FredC

I just saw that CH was bought by Bertelsmann (BMG?) I don't know what effect this will have on the deals, but it's possible they will get a little tighter under new ownership...

FRANKFURT, May 10 (Reuters) - German media conglomerate
Bertelsmann [BERT.UL] continued its acquisition spree on
Tuesday, buying the U.S. direct seller of CDs, Columbia House,
to bolster its ailing club business DirectGroup.
Bertelsmann bought Columbia House from private equity
investor Blackstone in a deal subject to regulatory approval,
DirectGroup said in a statement. It declined to disclose the
price it paid.
The acquisition comes a month after Bertelsmann, which has
earmarked up to 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) for purchases
until the end of 2006, bought French bookstore chain Privat in
another deal to strengthen DirectGroup.
The club business, the root of Bertelsmann's rise to become
the world's fourth-largest media group, has struggled with an
ageing membership as younger people flock to the Internet to buy
books or CDs. Its sales fell five percent last year.

dadaluholla

Maybe they will get looser.

anonymos

It will be very interesting to see how this affects things.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/bre...510&ID=4437497

dadaluholla

I think there is already a thread about this.

pilot

merged the two.

dcloye

FYI, Check out this Reuters story:
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German media conglomerate Bertelsmann is set to buy U.S. direct CD seller, Columbia House, for $400 million to bolster its ailing club business in a deal it had walked away from four years ago....
Bertelsmann's DirectGroup is buying Columbia House to add it to it's U.S. CD seller BMG Direct.
See:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/media_bertelsmann_dc

ME, I'm done with Columbia House DVDs (I already own virtually everything I'm even slightly interested in from the CH catalog and I can generally get new releases cheaper than CH as Previously Viewed rentals). Still, I'll be interested to see if any special deals emerge from the accquisition.

muggins

Wow...

I really hope they don't tweak CH too much or stop having some of the awesome deals CH has had.

PopcornTreeCt

All the deals will be gone. It was fun while it lasted.

Big Worms

We shall see what happens and in what time frame.

moonraker

I was contemplating holding onto my funcash for the December redemption period. But with this news, I'm not gonna take any chances. I'm going to redeem it all during the current redemption period.

dadaluholla

I'm going to fulfill all of my accounts, cancel them, and burn all paperwork related to my CH dealings. No point in taking chances.

dadaluholla

I think there were already 2 threads about this.

SFranke

Well, I'm going to nuke all of my open and closed accounts from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

pilot

merged..again...

dadaluholla

I'm pretty sure you are going to have to assassinate all employees of CH who may have possibly have come in contact with your account as well. Their friends and family too.

Upper pylon 3

Well, I for one am optimistic. BMG's CD club always had much better deals than CH's. In the early to mid 90's when I bought a lot of cd's I used to average about $4 from BMG vs. about $6 from CH. I have always wanted BMG to start carrying DVD's. Looks like now they will.

dadaluholla

I never liked BMG's cds because the UPC area always had the catalog number and it said "MANUFACTURED FOR BMG Music Services". That just seemed wrong. Maybe I'm just picky.

ericjanderson

Two points:

It is true that the BMG CDs (some of them, anyway) have a stamp "made for BMG" instead of the bar code. It is also true that many Columbia House releases have a different barcode than the retail versions, and a small "CRC" to denote their record club origins. I don't think these affect the quality of the product, though, so I tend to ignore it. I've not been able to detect any differences between the club product and the retail product as far as sound quality. (That was not true of the old vinyl made by Columbia House -- those were definitely inferior!)

Second, having been a customer of BMG Music service on and off for a dozen years or more, I can say that their error rate is virtually nil. Frankly I can't recall once that they have mailed me a mistaken selection. With Columbia House, they even mail me other people's selections -- complete with another person's receipt, included in my box. Fortunately they have never shortchanged me on a DVD, but obviously it is happening to other people, because I have gotten their CDs, DVDs, and their receipts included in my box.

In short, Columbia House's website, packing, shipping, customer service, billing and everything else associated with them is VERY error-prone. I can only see room for improvement if Bertelsman takes over.

Of course I am afraid the best deals will go. But if they offer fair deals, and good service, I welcome the change.

cfloyd3

Definately interesting.... I closed an account finally today, would seem it would be smart to atleast get 1 more account in here while the deals are still going just incase so I will definately open one soon.

Scott Connors

Doubtful. Bertelsman also bought the book distributor Baker and Taylor. Since that purchase, B&T has become notorious for screwing over its suppliers, especially small specialty publishers. If they follow that example, expect to see fewer selections from labels like Anchor Bay, Criterion, Acorn, etc. I think we can also expect to see CH's customer service degenerate even further.

SC_Trojan

I'd like to second that. For those who were BMG and CH cd club members, you might recall that CH carries a better selection than BMG. Commitment is less with BMG though.

bballing

New ownershp best be very careful with how they go about this. Everyone I know that deals with CH does not appreciate the BS that goes with getting the good deal.

CH takes away good deals and leaves the BS and they are going to have a huge drop.

Jerri Blank's Boy

Better selection is definitely subjective. I'm a member of both CH CD and BMG, and the stuff I like hits BMG way before CH, if it ever even shows up at CH at all.

cajun_junky

I had better get a couple accounts closed and try to get a couple more open sooooon!!!

Bill Needle

I also always found the BMG CD club a much better deal than CH's.