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Thomas Middelhoff: the rise and fall of a dotcom evangelist

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Jeevan Vasagar

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In his last guise as a chief executive, Thomas Middelhoff still kept a figurine of Friedrich Wilhelm I – the “soldier-king” of Prussia – in his office. The 18th-century statesman, who laid the foundations of Prussian military and financial power, was an inspiration for a business leader convinced of his ability to transform the staid landscape of corporate Germany.

Middelhoff’s lofty visions came crashing down last week when he was found guilty of 27 counts of embezzlement and three counts of tax evasion by a court in Essen. He was sentenced to three years in prison and remanded on custody, on the grounds that he might try to flee to his villa in St Tropez.

Stony-faced and resting his head in his hands, Middelhoff , 61, listened as the judge condemned his lack of honesty. “We are convinced that your testimony, at crucial points in the trial, was not governed by a spirit of honest dealing but guided by defensive tactics,” said the judge Jörg Schmitt. Middelhoff has lodged an appeal against the verdict.

It was a humiliating moment for a man who once epitomised a new breed of European capitalist. Like Jean-Marie Messier of France and Juan Villalonga of Spain, Middelhoff saw the internet as a vehicle to build global media empires.

At the peak of his career 15 years ago, Middelhoff was feted from Berlin to Hollywood as he made bold, billion-dollar bets on the internet, ecommerce and digital music. As chief executive of Bertelsmann , the media group, he was technically based in the town of Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia. But he never left any doubt that his ambitions were too big to be confined to his home country. With characteristic overstatement, he often described himself as an “American with a German passport”.

Middelhoff’s downfall stems from his life after media moguldom, to his time at the helm of Arcandor, a German retail and travel company that went bankrupt in 2009 after he failed to turn it round. The charges against him depicted a man unwilling to shed the trappings of success while running a troubled group.

He was accused of billing the company for private jet flights to New York and London, and helicopter commutes to the office which should have been paid for out of his own pocket. On Thursday, the court denied his request for release pending appeal.

The hearings afforded a glimpse of his taste for corporate bling. Middelhoff, on trial for breach of trust over €800,000 in expenses, argued that the helicopter flights were needed to keep up with a demanding schedule, while his chauffeur testified to his impatience with traffic jams. The lavish style jarred with Germany’s sober business culture, just as his career had been an exception in a country better known for the solid quality of its manufacturing than the swashbuckling of its dealmakers.

At Bertelsmann, he made it his mission to inject new energy into the 165-year-old family-owned business that began by publishing hymn books. “The most striking characteristic was his infectious enthusiasm and optimism,” said a media executive who knew him. “Once he was pursuing something he would be a remarkable force of nature. He had a messianic sense of self.”

He made so much money for the company through the sale of AOL, but he wasn’t being attentive enough. In ecommerce he hadn’t thought it out well enough One media industry executive

Middelhoff was quick to grasp that the internet was an opportunity as well as a threat for publishers. Appointed head of strategy at Bertelsmann in 1994, he pioneered internet investments – including a career-making deal to buy shares in AOL and a joint venture with Barnes & Noble to sell books online.

The new strategy chief convinced management to buy a 5 per cent stake in AOL for $50m, which the company later sold for huge profits. Bertelsmann reaped another windfall by selling a 49.5 per cent stake in AOL Europe – a joint venture between AOL and Bertelsmann – back to AOL for $6.7bn.

He was named CEO in 1998, after helping to strike a deal to buy US publishing group Random House . With that deal and the AOL windfall, Middelhoff was catapulted on to the global stage. He won a spot on Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” list, cementing his image.

But like other self-styled visionaries of the era, including Mr Messier, Middelhoff’s magic wore off once the internet bubble burst. Mr Messier transformed Vivendi, a water and sewage utility, into a multimedia empire with the purchase of Universal Studios – an empire that was later picked apart.

Middelhoff had to swallow losses at the division that held Bertelsmann’s ecommerce operations, which rose from €53m in 2000 to €150m in 2002. An expansion into US business magazines was equally fruitless and his attempt to take on Amazon with Barnesandnoble.com failed.

“He wasn’t always looking deeply enough into the issues,” the media industry executive said. “He made so much money for the company through the sale of AOL, but he wasn’t being attentive enough. In ecommerce he hadn’t thought it out well enough.”

Perhaps his boldest move was a partnership with the file-sharing service Napster as it was under intense legal pressure from record companies, including BMG, Bertelsmann’s own label. Middelhoff saw Napster’s rapid growth – it had attracted nearly 40m users in about a year – and glimpsed the future of music distribution.

Under the deal, BMG dropped its lawsuit against Napster but the rest of the industry’s litigation killed it. When Napster filed for bankruptcy, Bertelsmann was saddled with legal costs.

John Alderman, author of Sonic Boom , an account of the music industry’s struggles with the internet, said Middelhoff was ahead of his time in grasping the power of disruptive technology. “Middelhoff, it seems, understood that, and I think in that sense the Napster acquisition was a smart, even brave, move, even if it didn’t pan out,” he said.

The Mohns, the conservative family that controls Bertelsmann, soon lost the appetite for such ventures. Middelhoff was forced out in 2002 after lobbying for an initial public offering of the company, which would have diluted the Mohns’ control of the business.

“He threw himself into the dotcom boom heart and soul,” said a former executive at a business in which Bertelsmann had a stake. “He did it in a vigorous way that was certainly counter-cultural in the conservative hidebound spheres of Bertelsmann.”

What he should have had was people who were doing the basic work – boots on the ground – and he didn’t manage to get those people into the company. He was flying over it One former colleague

Middelhoff rebounded, joining the board of The New York Times in 2003 and launching a private equity fund. Two years later he was named chief executive of Karstadt Quelle – a company formed from the merger of a mail order business and one of Germany’s most venerable department store chains. Sales had been falling for years and Middelhoff was called in to perform a rescue by Madeleine Schickedanz, the 61-year-old heiress who was the company’s main investor.

A former colleague said Middelhoff created an “atmosphere of credibility. He personified the turnround story of Karstadt. It was all him.”

Middelhoff enjoyed the perks that came with his wealth – his annual pay swelled from €995,000 in 2005 to €3.86m in 2008. He chartered a 33-metre yacht named “Medici” and sailed off St Tropez as often as possible.

Middelhoff trimmed the sprawling company, which was renamed Arcandor. He sold off businesses and concentrated on Thomas Cook , the travel group, and the Karstadt stores.

The shops occupied prime locations in German cities. Middelhoff sold the properties – a move that cut debt but raised rental bills. Lacking experience of retail management or corporate turnrounds, he struggled with the challenge of rescuing the business. A former Arcandor colleague said Middelhoff’s lack of interest in details made him ill-suited for a complex restructuring.

“What he should have had was people who were doing the basic work – boots on the ground – and he didn’t manage to get those people into the company. He was flying over it,” the colleague said.

Questions about Middelhoff’s leadership intensified in 2008, when the company misled journalists about Arcandor’s intention to sell shares in Thomas Cook.

Days after denying the possibility of a sale, Arcandor issued a “clarification” in which it admitted that part of its stake might be sold to refinance the holding company. Shares tumbled and regulators launched an inquiry. In 2011, the regional court in Essen found that Middelhoff was responsible for misleading journalists about the potential sale.

Arcandor filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. Its stake in Thomas Cook was sold that year by creditors.

Ms Schickedanz said she had lost everything in the bankruptcy. Her fortune was estimated at €3.9bn by Forbes in 2008. A year later, she told Bild that she was living on a budget of €500-€600 a month, only occasionally allowing herself a pizza and a carafe of red wine at her local Italian restaurant. Yet she did not blame her choice of chief executive: “I can’t conceive of Middelhoff doing something crooked.”

Middelhoff, who stepped down from the board of the New York Times in the spring, faces further legal difficulties. Arcandor’s insolvency administrators are pursuing civil claims against him and other board members. He is also being pursued by former business partners who claim that he owes them money. At a court appearance this year, his Piaget wristwatch was removed by creditors and auctioned to pay debts.

Such treatment reflects a harder line being taken by German courts on lax oversight by executives, said Heiner Hugger, head of the German criminal law team at Clifford Chance. “The scale of Mr Middelhoff’s punishment is severe,” Mr Hugger said. “The judge has been clear about the fact that he found his evidence inconsistent and his explanations implausible.”

In the end, he was undone not by the establishment he tried to change but by his own vaulting ambition.

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Thomas Middelhoff, Former Bertelsmann Chief, Convicted Over Flight Costs

Thomas Middelhoff, a former CEO of media group Bertelsmann, has been convicted of breach of trust and tax evasion and sentenced to three years in prison over costs he incurred as CEO of a troubled…

By Associated Press

Associated Press

Thomas Middelhoff, a former CEO of media group Bertelsmann, has been convicted of breach of trust and tax evasion and sentenced to three years in prison over costs he incurred as CEO of a troubled department store company.

A prominent German business executive, Middelhoff, 61, was CEO of Arcandor, the now-bankrupt parent company of struggling German department store chain Karstadt from 2005-2009.

The state court in Essen found Friday (Nov. 14) he wrongly charged to Arcandor 26 private flights in chartered jets or helicopters, among other things, news agency dpa reported. It put the total cost to Arcandor at more than 500,000 euros ($623,000).

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Middelhoff denies any wrongdoing. He says he went to Arcandor “to save the company, to save jobs.”

Middelhoff became chief executive of Bertelsmann in 1998 and helped steer the company into the digital age with mergers and transactions, including AOL, Random House and Napster, according to the Wall Street Journal . After being forced out of Bertelsmann in 2002, he founded his own private-equity company, Middelhoff Capital GmbH.

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Former Bertelsmann CEO sent directly to jail after embezzlement conviction

Thomas Middelhoff, the former CEO of German media behemoth Bertelsmann, was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday after the disgraced executive was convicted on multiple counts of embezzlement and tax evasion, according to Reuters.

A German judge deemed Middelhoff a flight risk and sent him directly to jail, despite Middelhoff’s plans to appeal the court’s decision, marking a particularly steep fall for a man once viewed as one of his country’s most respected, media-savvy business leaders.

Starting in 2004, Middelhoff was entrusted to oversee what would become a failed turnaround for retail group Arcandor. It was in his role as CEO of that company that Middelhoff was later found to have misappropriated company funds, putting them toward such personal perks as expensive trips on chartered airplanes and helicopters between his home and Arcandor’s offices, Reuters reports. In the end, Middelhoff was found guilty of embezzling just shy of $1 million from the company, which went bankrupt in 2009 under his watch.

Before joining Arcandor, Middelhoff had spent more than a decade at Bertelsmann, whose mass media holdings include broadcast network RTL Group, music publisher BMG and a majority stake in the newly-combined publisher Penguin Random House. His time at Bertelsmann included four years as CEO, during which time Middelhoff attempted to bring the nearly 180-year old company into the Internet age while also orchestrating deals to acquire Random House and take full control of RTL.

In 2002, Fortune profiled Middelhoff in a story that chronicled Bertelsmann’s growth and noted the giant windfall the company received thanks to Middelhoff’s savvy (or, perhaps, lucky) investment in AOL Europe. The company made a profit of $7 billion selling its stake back to AOL in 2000, just before stock prices dropped precipitously.

After leaving Bertelsmann, Middelhoff also took a role as a director of The New York Times Company (NYT). He remained in that role until stepping down earlier this year for undisclosed reasons, according to the Times .

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The former Arcandor chief executive was found guilty of embezzlement, tax evasion.

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) — Thomas Middelhoff, the former chief executive of defunct German retail group Arcandor, will appeal a three-year prison sentence, his lawyer said Sunday, confirming a report by German weekly Bild am Sonntag.

Middelhoff, once one of Germany’s most prominent and respected business leaders, was found guilty on 27 counts of embezzlement and three counts of tax evasion by a state court on Friday.

Middelhoff’s conviction and jailing attracted widespread media attention as he has been depicted as a symbol of executive greed in a country where the pay gap between workers and managers has widened dramatically in recent years.

The 61-year-old was taken straight to jail – an unusual court order – because the judge ruled there was a risk he might try to flee to France, where he has a residence.

“I undertake all efforts to get Middelhoff out of custody,” Middelhoff’s lawyer Winfried Holtermueller said.

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German Economy Online

Saturday, april 11, 2015, the deep case of thomas middelhoff – hamburger evening gazette.

 Once he was as Karstadt CEO of one of the most influential managers in Germany. Now he is ill in custody

And otherwise it’s gone downhill recently for Middelhoff at a breathtaking pace. Financial: The manager who once earned millions, had to sign personal bankruptcy in late March. The provisional insolvency administrator Thorsten Fuest said of the bankruptcy filing follows that Middelhoff see themselves confronted with the demands of “at least 50 creditors”

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Thomas Middelhoff, Ex-Chief of Bertelsmann, Must Remain in Jail During Appeal

By Jack Ewing

• Nov. 20, 2014

FRANKFURT — Thomas Middelhoff, the former chief executive of German media company Bertelsmann, must remain in jail while he appeals his conviction on charges that he embezzled from a subsequent employer, a court in the city of Essen said Thursday.

That ruling denied Mr. Middelhoff’s request for release pending his appeal. It is the latest setback for the onetime corporate jet-setter, who was convicted of billing personal charter flights to Arcandor, a German retailer that hired him in 2004 to restore profitability.

Mr. Middelhoff, 61, a former member of the board of directors of The New York Times Company, has been held since Friday, when the court found him guilty of 27 counts of embezzlement and three counts of tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison .

The charges stem from when Mr. Middelhoff was chief executive of Arcandor, operator of Karstadt, once Germany’s largest department store chain. The court found that Mr. Middelhoff took private flights on charter jets at the company’s expense, and sometimes made unauthorized commutes by helicopter to Arcandor headquarters in Essen from his home about 90 miles away.

Arcandor went bankrupt in 2009, after Mr. Middelhoff was forced out, although Karstadt stores continue to operate, under new ownership.

The court said Thursday that there was a risk that Mr. Middelhoff might flee — to avoid not only the prison sentence, but also additional criminal and civil proceedings against him. In a statement on Thursday, the court also cited Mr. Middelhoff’s “unclear financial situation, which has not become transparent from documents submitted in the meantime” by his lawyers.

Mr. Middelhoff did not offer to post bail, the statement said. A spokesman for the court said that Mr. Middelhoff was being held in a jail in Essen. He can appeal the decision to keep him in custody.

As chief executive of Bertelsmann beginning in 1998, Mr. Middelhoff tried to push the company into the digital age. But he clashed with the Mohn family that controls the company, and was ousted in 2002. Mr. Middelhoff was a member of The New York Times Company’s board of directors from 2003 until this spring.

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Thomas Middelhoff is the former CEO of Bertelsmann. In November 2014, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for receiving unjust advantages during his tenure as CEO of Arcandor.

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Thomas Middelhoff: Lesen sie hier aktuelle News und neueste Nachrichten von heute zum Betriebswirt

Thomas middelhoff.

Thomas Middelhoff wurde am 11. Mai 1953 in Düsseldorf geboren. 1975 bis 1979 studierte er Betriebswirtschaftslehre an der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Middelhoff arbeitete zunächst als wissenschaftlicher Assistent am Institut für Marketing der Universität Münster. Von 1984 bis 1985 arbeitete er im Betrieb seines Vaters, der Middelhoff GmbH. 1986 folgte die Promotion zum Dr. rer. oec.

Thomas Middelhoff startete im November 1986 bei der Bertelsmann AG . Zuerst arbeitete er für die Mohndruck Graphische Betriebe GmbH, in der er von 1989 bis 1994 Geschäftsführer war. 1994 wurde Thomas Middelhoff in den Vorstand der Bertelsmann AG berufen. 1998 wurde er zum Vorstandsvorsitzenden der Bertelsmann AG ernannt. Diese Position führte Middelhoff bis in das Jahr 2002 aus und war unter anderem für den Ausbau von RTL sowie dem Kauf des Verlagshauses Random House Inc. verantwortlich. Nach Streitigkeiten mit Reinhard Mohn verließ Thomas Middelhoff die Bertelsmann AG und wechselte zu einer Private-Equity Beteiligungsgesellschaft.

Im Juni 2004 wurde Thomas Middelhoff zum Vorsitzenden des Aufsichtsrates der KarstadtQuelle bestellt. Im darauffolgenden Jahr übernahm er die Position des Vorstandsvorsitzenden der Gesellschaft. In der Zeit als Vorstandsvorsitzender firmierte Thomas Middelhoff unter anderem das Unternehmen in Arcandor AG um. Im März 2009 wurde er als Vorstandsvorsitzender abgelöst. Im September des gleichen Jahres musste die Arcandor AG Insolvenz anmelden. Nach seiner Zeit bei Arcandor machte Thomas Middelhoff nur noch Schlagzeilen aufgrund von Gerichtsverfahren. 

Lesen sie hier aktuelle News und neueste Nachrichten von heute zu Thomas Middelhoff.

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„Vom Himmel zur Hölle, und zurück“ – Die Geschichte des Thomas Middelhoff

Mit viel Selbstkritik blickt Thomas Middelhoff in seinem neuen Buch auf sein bisheriges Leben zurück. Es ist ein Striptease auf 287 Seiten.

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Beichte aus A 115

Einst war er der Star der deutschen Wirtschaft, dann folgte der tiefe Fall – beruflich und privat. Jetzt versucht sich der Ex-Karstadt-Quelle-Chef Thomas Middelhoff als Erzähler der eigenen Leidenszeit, Knast inklusive.

Verfahren gegen vier Aufsichtsräte eingestellt

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Gericht stellt Strafprozess gegen Ex-Arcandor-Chef ein

Der Prozess gegen den früheren Arcandor-Chef Thomas Middelhoff endet viel schneller als erwartet. Nach nur sechs Wochen zieht das Gericht einen Schlussstrich. Überzeugt von seiner Unschuld ist die Kammer dennoch nicht.

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Im Millionenstreit rückt ein Vergleich näher

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Lichtblick für Thomas Middelhoff

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Thomas Middelhoff hat als Freigänger seine Arbeit in einer Behinderteneinrichtung wieder aufgenommen. Von dem Gehalt sieht der frühere Top-Manager, der zu drei Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt wurde, allerdings nichts

Ex-Topmanager tritt seine Haft an

Es ist wohl einer der schwärzesten Tage im Leben des Thomas Middelhoff: Der frühere Topmanager, inzwischen tief gefallen und als Steuersünder rechtskräftig verurteilt, sitzt ab sofort im Gefängnis.

Middelhoffs Revision verworfen – was passiert mit „Big T“?

Thomas Middelhoff wurde zu drei Jahren Haft wegen Untreue und Steuerhinterziehung verurteilt. Seine Revision hat der Bundesgerichtshof jetzt als unbegründet verworfen. Muss der Ex-Manager wieder in Haft?

Insolvenz beantragt, Gläubiger im Visier  

Drei Monate nach der Pleite des einstigen Starmanagers Thomas Middelhoff hat der Insolvenzverwalter Thorsten Fuest beim Amtsgericht Bielefeld die Eröffnung des Verfahrens beantragt. Auch Gläubigern droht jetzt Ärger.

Middelhoff im Gefängnis: Es geht um Recht, nicht um Rache

Die Haftbedingungen für Ex-Karstadt-Chef Thomas Middelhoff sorgen für eine Debatte. Doch dabei steht nicht das Recht im Mittelpunkt, sondern Moral. Unser Thema bei Handelsblatt in 99 Sekunden.

Jäger des verlorenen Schatzes

Insolvenzverwalter Thorsten Fuest ermittelt, ob Thomas Middelhoff sein Vermögen beiseitegeschafft hat. Eine Herkulesaufgabe, denn dazu muss er sämtliche Zahlungen bis zurück in die 90er-Jahre analysieren. Wird er fündig?

Klappe auf, Klappe zu

Die schonungslose Haft für Thomas Middelhoff entzweit die Republik. Die Grünen-Politikerin Künast und der Autor Todenhöfer setzen sich für ihn ein. Die Entscheidung der Haftprüfung von Donnerstag steht noch aus.

Gericht setzt Haftprüfung bei Middelhoff an

Im Fall des früheren Arcandor-Chefs Thomas Middelhoff hat das Gericht kurzfristig einen Haftprüfungstermin angesetzt. Die NRW-Landesregierung weist Vorwürfe zurück, den Manager über Tage am Schlaf gehindert zu haben.

Er hat „immer in einer ganz anderen Welt gelebt“

Hat Schlafenzug Thomas Middelhoff krank gemacht? Die Anwälte des Ex-Managers gehen gegen die Justiz vor. Wie oft Sichtkontrollen in U-Haft vorkommen und ab wann Schlafenzug schädlich ist – die wichtigsten Antworten.

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Middelhoff Consulting exists to solve the critical issues facing our clients, both large and small. Our unique approach is not only what differentiates us, but also what makes us successful. We provide a broad range of services and solutions to help organizations facilitate change, achieve their vision and optimize performance and productivity.

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