Mr. Ostrowski will be replaced by Thomas Rabe, the chief financial officer, on Jan. 1, 2012, a year before Mr. Ostrowski’s contract was set to expire.
Until Monday, many analysts had expected that Mr. Ostrowski, who is 53, would be reappointed to a second term as chief executive, given that he has steered Bertelsmann through the global financial crisis in relatively good shape.
As chief financial officer, Mr. Rabe has also gotten credit for Bertelsmann’s relative stability in recent years, which followed a period in which the company had to pay down debt accumulated in a buyout spree. Associates describe Mr. Rabe as a highly ambitious executive who has been eager to prove himself as the top manager.
“The groundwork has been laid for leading Bertelsmann into the next expansive stage of development,” Gunter Thielen, chairman of the board, wrote in a letter to employees. “In Thomas, I am positive that we have an entrepreneur at the top who will lend momentum to Bertelsmann’s growth.”
Under Mr. Ostrowski and Mr. Rabe, Bertelsmann has dipped its toes back into the merger-and-acquisition waters.
For example, they have been looking at the music company EMI Group, which is currently being sold by Citigroup. BMG Rights Management, a joint venture between Bertelsmann and the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is said to be primarily interested in EMI’s music publishing business.
Mr. Rabe has overseen BMG since it was set up in 2009, marking Bertelsmann’s re-entry into the music business after Bertelsmann sold its share of a previous music partnership with Sony to the Japanese company in 2008.
The personable Mr. Ostrowski rose through the ranks in a less glamorous part of Bertelsmann — its services arm, Arvato, which was set up to run Bertelsmann’s book clubs but now handles a range of logistical tasks, many of them for other companies.
After relinquishing his duties as chief executive, Mr. Ostrowski will become a member of the board, though Mr. Thielen will remain chairman of Bertelsmann, which is based in Gütersloh, Germany.
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