<p>The world's two top English language rival publishers, Britain's Penguin Books and Germany's Random House, on Saturday struck a merger deal to create the globe's biggest book publisher.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The new company would be run as a joint venture known as Penguin Random House, with the tie-up expected to be completed in the second half of next year subject to regulatory approvals, the BBC reported.<br /><br />The decision by two of Europe's largest publishing houses to merge their popular units for a bigger slice of the publishing largesse has sounded a note of caution among Indian publishers, who are waiting for the deal to reveal itself. British publisher Pearson owns Penguin books while English-language rival Random House is owned by German media giant Bertelsmann.<br /><br />The German media giant Bertelsmann will own 53 per cent of the joint venture, Pearson will own 47 per cent.<br /><br />The merger comes amid reports that Rupert Murdoch-run News Corp - which also owns Harper Collins - was bidding to make a substantial cash offer to takeover Penguin.<br /><br />Complementary skills<br /><br />"The combination brings together two of the world's leading English language publishers, with highly complimentary skills," a statement by Pearson said.<br /><br />"Random House is the leading English language publisher in the US and the UK, while Penguin is the world's most famous publishing brand and has a strong presence in fast-growing developing markets," it said. Bertelsmann will nominate five directors to the board of Penguin Random House and Pearson four.<br /><br />John Makinson, currently chairman and chief executive of Penguin, was to be chairman of Penguin Random House and Markus Dohle, currently chief executive of Random House, its chief executive.<br /><br />In 2011, Random House's revenues were 1.7 billion euros with an operating profit of 185 million euros. Penguin recorded revenues of 1 billion pounds. Based on recent results, combining the two firms will create a business with annual revenues of about 2.5 billion pounds.<br /><br />A section of leading publishing houses in the country felt that the deal could set in a wave of mergers of small and big players in the industry at the domestic level. The trend had begun showing on a smaller scale few years ago with publishing houses like Zubaan, Yatra Books and Westland Tranquebar Ltd tying up with bigger publishers for a wider distribution footprint. Rupa & Co, a mass market fiction leader in India, tied up with former Penguin CEOs David Davidar and Ravi Singh to set up Aleph Book Company, a literary fiction imprint which uses Rupa's resources.<br /><br />It is too early to comment on the Penguin-Random Houser merger, said Kapish Mehra, publisher of Rupa & Co. “Let us see how the merger unfolds. I don't think the situation will change much on the ground,” Mehra said.<br /><br /></p>
<p>The world's two top English language rival publishers, Britain's Penguin Books and Germany's Random House, on Saturday struck a merger deal to create the globe's biggest book publisher.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The new company would be run as a joint venture known as Penguin Random House, with the tie-up expected to be completed in the second half of next year subject to regulatory approvals, the BBC reported.<br /><br />The decision by two of Europe's largest publishing houses to merge their popular units for a bigger slice of the publishing largesse has sounded a note of caution among Indian publishers, who are waiting for the deal to reveal itself. British publisher Pearson owns Penguin books while English-language rival Random House is owned by German media giant Bertelsmann.<br /><br />The German media giant Bertelsmann will own 53 per cent of the joint venture, Pearson will own 47 per cent.<br /><br />The merger comes amid reports that Rupert Murdoch-run News Corp - which also owns Harper Collins - was bidding to make a substantial cash offer to takeover Penguin.<br /><br />Complementary skills<br /><br />"The combination brings together two of the world's leading English language publishers, with highly complimentary skills," a statement by Pearson said.<br /><br />"Random House is the leading English language publisher in the US and the UK, while Penguin is the world's most famous publishing brand and has a strong presence in fast-growing developing markets," it said. Bertelsmann will nominate five directors to the board of Penguin Random House and Pearson four.<br /><br />John Makinson, currently chairman and chief executive of Penguin, was to be chairman of Penguin Random House and Markus Dohle, currently chief executive of Random House, its chief executive.<br /><br />In 2011, Random House's revenues were 1.7 billion euros with an operating profit of 185 million euros. Penguin recorded revenues of 1 billion pounds. Based on recent results, combining the two firms will create a business with annual revenues of about 2.5 billion pounds.<br /><br />A section of leading publishing houses in the country felt that the deal could set in a wave of mergers of small and big players in the industry at the domestic level. The trend had begun showing on a smaller scale few years ago with publishing houses like Zubaan, Yatra Books and Westland Tranquebar Ltd tying up with bigger publishers for a wider distribution footprint. Rupa & Co, a mass market fiction leader in India, tied up with former Penguin CEOs David Davidar and Ravi Singh to set up Aleph Book Company, a literary fiction imprint which uses Rupa's resources.<br /><br />It is too early to comment on the Penguin-Random Houser merger, said Kapish Mehra, publisher of Rupa & Co. “Let us see how the merger unfolds. I don't think the situation will change much on the ground,” Mehra said.<br /><br /></p>