U.S. Justice Department Approves Random House Penguin Merger

Posted on February 14, 2013

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the merger of Penguin and Random House. The New York Times reports that the Justice Department did not impose any conditions on the merger, which it often does if there is an antitrust issue. Random House is owned by German media company Bertelsmann and Penguin is owned by British giant Pearson. The European Commission must still approve the deal which would create the world's largest book publisher.

Thomas Rabe, CEO of Bertelsmann, said in a statement, "This positive first decision by one of the antitrust authorities is an important milestone on the path to uniting two of the world's leading publishing companies into a truly global publishing group."

If the European Commission signs on, the no cash deal is expected to close in the second half of 2013. The resulting entity will control 25% of the English language book market. The name of the new publishing giant will be Penguin Random House.