One of Germany's largest media companies, Bertelsmann is considering the acquisition of Thomson Learning, which the Thomson corporation put up for sale late last year because it feels the academic electronic content and text book publisher does not fit with its strategy.

Bertelsmann has entered into an agreement with Citigroup Private Equity and Morgan Stanley Principal Investments to form a fund of £2.5bn which will allow Bertelsmann to take a minority share in information companies with a view to an outright acquisition at a later date.

According to the Financial Times Thomson Learning is the first acquisition the new team has in mind. Bertelsmann already owns RTL Television, which Channel 5 is part of and the publishing company Random House. The media giant will add 500m Euros to the fund with the rest being supplied by the funding companies.