AMERICAN IDOL - GERMAN MEDIA MOGUL MOHN DEAD AT 88

GERMAN MEDIA MOGUL MOHN DEAD AT 88

Reinhard Mohn, who fashioned Bertelsmann into Europe's mightiest media company and accumulated billions of dollars in wealth in the process, died Saturday at age 88. In a statement, Hartmut Ostrowski, the company's current CEO, said that it had "lost an entrepreneur and benefactor par excellence." The company was founded by Mohn's great-great-grandfather, but it was Mohn who after World War II lifted it into the great powerhouse that it remains with assets that include Germany's RTL, Europe's largest broadcaster and production company (it's the parent of the company that produces American Idol and similar Idol shows in 50 countries), U.S. publisher Random House.

05/10/2009