PEARSON Plc will merge its Penguin Books division with Random House, which is owned by German media company Bertelsmann, in an all-share deal that will create the world's largest publisher of consumer books.
The planned joint venture brings together classic and best-selling names. As well as publishing books from authors such as John Grisham, Random House scored a major hit this year with Fifty Shades of Grey. Penguin has a strong backlist, including George Orwell, Jack Kerouac and John Le Carre.
The two companies said on Monday that Bertelsmann would own a controlling 53 per cent share of the joint venture, which will be known as Penguin Random House.
Bertelsmann would keep full control of Verlagsgruppe Random House, its trade publishing business in Germany, and Pearson would retain the right to use the Penguin brand in education.
The announcement appears to put paid to any hopes that News Corp may have had in netting Penguin. Reports over the past couple of days have indicated that News Corp had expressed an interest in buying Penguin for STG1 billion ($A1.56 billion) in cash.
Pearson declined to comment on the possible interest of News Corp.
News Corp owns HarperCollins, another big publishing house.
Under the terms of the deal, Random House worldwide chief executive Markus Dohle will be CEO of the new group while Penguin's CEO John Makinson will be the chairman of its board of directors.
"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.
Bertelsmann's Dohle said the link-up will "create a publishing home that gives employees, authors, agents, and booksellers access to unprecedented resources."
The closing of the deal is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2013 following regulatory approval.
Pearson said the deal does not require approval by shareholders; Bertelsmann is privately-owned.
Pearson shares were down one per cent at 1209 pence in midmorning trading in London.
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