Penguin and Random House in multi-billion merger deal

The news of the £2.4bn merger between two of 'the big six' marks a new chapter in the publishing industry's history

The new venture will be called Penguin Random House. Pearson, Penguin's parent company, will own 47%, and Random House owners Bertelsman will have the other 53%.

The merger is a response to the emerging long-term trends and considerable changes affecting the consumer publishing industry. The combined organisation believes it will be able to offer a stronger platform and greater resources with regard to rich-content, new digital publishing models.

'Together, the two publishers will be able to share a large part of their costs, to invest more for their author and reader constituencies and to be more adventurous in trying new models in this exciting, fast-moving world of digital books and digital readers,' said Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson.

'I deeply believe that the support and services that we will be able to offer, coupled with the creative and editorial independence that we will continue to maintain, will benefit everyone in the book publishing environment, especially our passionate readers from today's generation to the next,' said chairman and CEO of Random House Markus Dohle.

The combination is expected to complete in the second half of 2013.

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