At the end of January 2017, BMG took over the BBR Music Group, which includes well-known country music labels such as Broken Bow Records, Stoney Creek Records, Wheelhouse Records and the music publisher Magic Mustang Music. The takeover also included the rights to many well-known country music artists.

In July 2017, Penguin Random House acquired the publishing business Ediciones B from Spain’s Grupo Zeta media group, which as part of the Spanish-speaking Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, strengthens the publishing businesses in Spain and Latin America.

Fernando Carro resigned from the Executive Board of Bertelsmann Management SE effective July 13, 2017. The position of Arvato CEO represented on the Bertelsmann Executive Board has not yet been filled. Since then, CEO Thomas Rabe and CFO Bernd Hirsch have been jointly managing the Arvato division.

In October 2017, RTL Group acquired the remaining shares of SpotX Inc. by exercising a call option. RTL Group thus continued to expand its advertising technology business. The full takeover of SpotX enables a stronger integration with the European online video advertising company Smartclip and the creation of a comprehensive advertising technology hub to support the marketing solutions for RTL businesses.

In October 2017, Bertelsmann increased its stake in Penguin Random House to a strategic three-quarters majority by acquiring a further 22 percent from Pearson, the British media and education company. Through this acquisition, Bertelsmann gained greater governance rights at Penguin Random House and will in the future appoint the chairman of the board of directors, among other things. Pearson remains a co-shareholder of Penguin Random House with a share of 25 percent.

In December 2017, RTL Group sold three adjoining buildings in Paris that were previously used by RTL Radio France. The sale proceeds amount to €114 million; the capital gain is €94 million.