Marc Al‑Hames, the newly appointed chair of Hubert Burda Media’s board of directors, has called for a digital services tax. He told the “Handelsblatt” Friday edition that such a tax would provide the funding needed to accelerate the aggressive growth of technology firms in Europe. “If we could invest that money in European tech, companies would become less dependent on U.S. digital hyperscalers and could take on bigger projects” he said.
Al‑Hames argues that Europe also needs new entrepreneurial freedoms in Germany. “We need a different capital allocation. A commitment of $110 billion in a funding round, like that seen with Open AI, is simply too large for any single European company to handle today” he added.
He took over the board chair position earlier this year and is now working with Hubert Burda’s heirs, Jacob Burda and Elisabeth Burda Furtwängler, to devise a long‑term strategy for the conglomerate. The company generated about €2.7 billion in revenue in 2024. Its most recognizable publishing brands include “Focus” and “Bunte” while in the investment side it owns interests in “Holiday Check” and “Xing”.