Ownership of one of the world’s biggest book publishers has changed, slightly. Pearson, the former parent of the Financial Times (FT), has sold down its holding in New York-based Penguin Random House for U$1bn to Bertelsmann, a media group controlled by Germany’s billionaire Mohn family. If you don’t know, Penguin Random House’s book list includes Nigella Lawson cookbooks and the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise. The publisher accounts for about one in four of all books sold globally, and is now valued at $3.55bn. The combination of Penguin and Random House into one giant publishing house came about when in 2013 the pair merged in a £2.4bn tie-up. This was a time before the deluge of quaint independents (with their micro-foam lattes) and the comfortable coexistence of printed and electronic books, when the traditional book business was getting smaller in order to get stronger. Brick-and-mortar stores were closing and the threat of cheaper electronic books (and printed books, for that ...
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