Here Comes Random Penguin

Random Penguin is one step closer to reality. The U.S. Department of Justice gave its approval Thursday to the merger of publishing houses Random House and Penguin. The European Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau and other antitrust authorities around the world will still have to review the proposal. The companies Pearson, which owns Penguin, and Bertelsmann, which owns Random House, announced last October their intention to merge and be better positioned in the digital market against companies like Amazon. Bertelsmann would own 53 percent and Pearson 47 percent of the new company, to be called Penguin Random House, and the enterprise would control more than 30 percent of all trade book publishing. The companies said they expect the merger to be completed later this year.