Courtesy of LibraryJournal…
Just days after word broke that a Penguin/Random House merger was a possibility, it’s nearly a done deal. The companies announced they’re creating a joint venture, pending regulatory approval. (To the disappointment of the Twitterverse, it will be named Penguin Random House, not Random Penguin.)
Bertelsmann will own 53 percent, and Pearson, 47 percent of the new company. Markus Dohle, CEO of Random House, will be CEO; John Makinson, chairman and CEO of Penguin, will be chairman. Bertelsmann will nominate five directors to the board and Pearson, four.
Penguin Random House will include all the publishing divisions and imprints of Random House and Penguin in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, as well as Penguin’s publishing company in China, and Random House’s Spanish-language publishing operations in Spain and Latin America. The joint venture excludes Bertelsmann’s trade publishing business in Germany, and Pearson keeps the rights to use the Penguin brand in education markets.
You can read the rest of the article here: Penguin, Random House Merger Is On
