Bertie itching to drop some cash on whatever

-Shomari Hines German media giant Bertelsmann is said to be in a shopping mood and joined forces with Morgan Stanley to set up a money pot to seduce private equity companies into giving them some. Bertie's Net profits more than doubled to 2.424 billion euros and turnover increased by 7.9 percent to 19.3 billion euros. However they are going to hold off until 2008 so that incoming CEO Hartmut "Hart" Ostrowski will have something to issue quotes on. "At that point, we will again have financial scope of between 1.2 and 1.5 billion euros per year (1.6 and 2.0 billion dollars) for acquisitions and 700 million euros for other ongoing investments," the group's CEO, Thomas Rabe, said. Bertelsmann plans buying spree after profits soar [AFP]