The rights to the Brockhaus trademark were purchased by Arvato services, a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann media group.

Paralleling other 18th century encyclopedias, the scope of the original Conversations-Lexikon was expanded beyond that of earlier publications, in an effort to become comprehensive.

[citation needed] Upon Löbel's death in 1799, Franke sold the rights to publication to Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (1772–1823).

After the merger, it was decided that former BIM serial reference works such as Meyers Konversations-Lexikon would henceforth be marketed under the name of Brockhaus.

The articles, often very brief, were considered excellent and trustworthy, especially on German subjects, gave references to the best books, and included biographies of living men.

On February 13, 2008, Brockhaus announced that due to the disappointing sales figures, it would make the content of the encyclopedia available online, supported by Internet advertising revenues[5] and that there might be no more print editions.

[6] This announcement briefly boosted print sales again and the plans to switch to an on-line only edition were canceled.

[7] This move was widely interpreted as the end of Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, caused by the competition of Internet-based reference works such as Wikipedia.

[7] "No work of reference has been more useful and successful, or more frequently copied, imitated and translated, than that known as the Conversations-Lexikon of Brockhaus," wrote the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.

[8] The work was intended not for scientific use, but to promote general intellectual improvement by giving the results of research and discovery in a simple and popular form without extended details.