Süddeutscher Verlag

The Süddeutscher Verlag (SV) is a corporate group that has emerged from the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Founded as a newspaper publisher, Süddeutscher Verlag developed into one of Germany's largest media companies providing to Germany and abroad. The publisher has continued to focus in the areas of newspapers, journals and books. The company's headquarters is the SV-Hochhaus in Munich's district Zamdorf. The SV printing center is located in the neighboring district of Steinhausen.

The activities of the Süddeutscher Verlag began with the publication of the first edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung on 6 October 1945. The Süddeutsche Verlag GmbH, with headquarters in Munich, was founded in 1947 by the shareholders August Schwingenstein, Edmund Goldschagg, Franz Josef Schöningh and Werner Friedmann.

Three years later the first book publisher was founded. Other investments, acquisitions and new formations followed. Today, more than one hundred subsidiaries are part of the Süddeutscher Verlag.

The headquarters in the Sendlinger Straße was sold by the publishing house in 2004. Since the fall of 2008, the headquarters of the publishing house is located in the new SV-Hochhaus in Munich-Zamdorf.

The Süddeutscher Verlag was largely owned by five Munich publisher families, the descendants of the founders, until 2007. These were the families of Friedmann (shares: 18.75%), Goldschagg (18.75%), Seidlein (18.75%), Schwingenstein (16.67%) and Dürrmeier (8.33%), and also the most recent addition of the Südwestdeutsche Medien Holding (SWMH) (18.75%). Chairman of the shareholders association was Christian Goldschagg. In August 2004, Hanswilli Jenke and Klaus Josef Lutz were managing directors of the publishing house.

Four of the five associate families (Dürrmeier, Goldschagg, Schwingenstein and Seidlein) finally agreed, after years of speculation, to sell their shares totaling 62.5% in 2007. Prospective buyers that came forth were M. DuMont Schauberg based in Cologne (Frankfurter Rundschau, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger), the Funke Mediengruppe based in Essen (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung), the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group based in Stuttgart (Der Tagesspiegel, Die Zeit) as well as four financial investors, Goldman Sachs, Apax Partners, Veronis Suhler Stevenson und 3i. The SWMH with 18.75 percent held a right of first refusal and the shareholder family of John Friedmann (Abendzeitung) was against the sale to investors. On 21 December 2007, the sale was announced with the shares going to the SWMH. Increasing their total stakes to 81.25% effective as of 29 February 2008.

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