United Publishing Houses
The United Publishing Houses ( VVA for short ) were a printing group that became insolvent in 2010 .
history
The company history of VVA goes back to the 19th century. The year of foundation is 1894, when the Oberhausen-based "Volksverlag AG" started operations. The publishing house initially published a Catholic daily newspaper in Oberhausen, after which the newspaper producer became the printing service provider "Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten AG". Later the VVA gradually became a media company . The group included, among others, the overview publishing house, B&D publishing house with blond, the magazine FACTS , photography, the literary magazine BÜCHER , ratgeber build and many more.
Group boss Stefan Meutsch, who among other things acted as president of the soccer club Rot-Weiss Essen for several years , took over the VVA from the "Druckerei Wesel" in 2002. In 2006 EBD Networks was taken over and integrated into the media group as VVA Networks. In 2008, the takeover of the traditional printing and media company Konkordia followed, which was based in Bühl near Baden-Baden and at that time employed 75 people.
In 2009, the VVA Networks, which included the online division of the group, was led to bankruptcy, which was seen by many observers as a first sign of a massive imbalance in the entire group. In May 2010, the entire media group had to file for bankruptcy because talks with potential investors failed. The bankruptcy was handled by insolvency advisor lawyer Piepenburg from the Düsseldorf law firm Piepenburg & Gehrling (known for its Karstadt bankruptcy).
The last publicly communicated sales of the group, which at times employed approx. 770 permanent employees, amounted to up to 100 million euros according to information provided by the company. The United publishing houses (also known as VVA Kommunikation) recently had 80 million euros in debt. The locations in Baden-Baden, Dubai, Düsseldorf, Essen, Hamburg and Ludwigsburg were closed or partially taken over by new owners.
At the end of 2010, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor began investigations against CEO Stefan Meutsch, as there was suspicion of bankruptcy delay, fraud and breach of trust.
Individual evidence
- ^ Clemens von Frentz: Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten: The bankruptcy is expanding on druck-medien.net from June 4, 2010; Retrieved July 4, 2014
- ↑ Clemens von Frentz: United publishing houses: future with Konkordia on druck-medien.net of March 13, 2008; Retrieved July 4, 2014
- ^ Daniel Schilling: Now the public prosecutor is investigating on druck-medien.net from November 29, 2010; Retrieved October 10, 2013