in 1998, random house made news again when it was bought by bertelsmann. the authors guild approached the fair trade commission, arguing that "the $1.4 billion acquisition of random house by bantam's parent, bertelsmann ag, the german media conglomerate, would create a "new economic behemoth" with the potential to restrict readers' choices and authors' ability to market their works". bertelsmann was allowed to make the purchase, however, making it the largest publisher of english-language trade books. again, schiffrin protested, noting that in the eight years since random house had come under the direction of vitale, "random house's 'high end'—the literary translations and books of criticism, cultural history and political analysis that had built the reputation of the knopf and pantheon imprints—were being sacrificed" and that concerns for the "bottom line" would outweigh intellectual and social concerns.