DBH Deutsche Buch Handels GmbH & Co. KG

The DBH Deutsche Buch Handels GmbH & Co. KG (English: German Book Trading Inc. with sole general partner with a limited commercial partnership) based in Munich competes for being the major booktrading company in Germany with his rival Thalia which belongs to the Douglas Holding AG. The DBH was established in 2006 as a Holding and belongs at 50% to the Hugendubel Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG (English: Hugendubel Holding Inc.) and the Verlagsgruppe Weltbild GmbH. The DBH arose from the longtime cooperation between these two companies as a joint venture. Shareholders of the Verlagsgruppe Weltbild are 14 dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and the Soldatenseelsorge Berlin (English: religious welfare for soldiers).

The DBH stated a volume of 675 million Euro for the first accounting year (2006). The company manages about 465 branches of both of the proprietor companies with about 3500 employees (effective: 2006). In Germany, Austria and Switzerland there are the subsidiaries Hugendubel (34 branches), Weiland (33), Buch Habel (17), Schmorl und von Seefeld (2), Wohlthat'sche Buchhandlung (about 50), Weltbild/Weltbild Plus/Weltbild Best (about 260), Jokers Restseller (18), Weltbild! (12), A&M and AM! (35).

Since July 2008, the DBH owns 44 of the 89 book departments of the Karstadt group. The remaining 45 departments were closed and the employees were moved to other departments.

Thalia tried the same but lost the competition for the partnership with Karstadt. The acquisition of the 44 departments was approved by the Federal Cartel Office (Germany) in April 2008. Eight further departments (in Kiel, Leipzig, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt and Munich) stayed unapproved for a while because of antitrust objections.

...
Wikipedia