BRUSSELS -- The European Union's antitrust watchdog on Friday gave its green light to the proposed merger of Penguin and Random House that will create the world's largest book publisher.
The deal will bring classics like George Orwell's "1984" and the recent literary phenomenon "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James under one umbrella. The merged publisher Penguin Random House is set to control about a quarter of the world's consumer book market.
Still, the deal does "not raise competition concerns, in particular because the merged entity will continue to face several strong competitors," the EU Commission said in a statement.
The decision follows a similar unconditional green light by U.S. antitrust authorities in February. The Canadian Competition Bureau and other regulators are still reviewing the deal's impact.
Random House's German parent company, Bertelsmann SE, welcomed the EU's decision in a statement, calling it "another important stage" toward completing the merger.
Bertelsmann will own 53 percent of the new company, which will encompass all of both companies' publishing units in the U.S. and six other countries.
Random House and Penguin, a division of Britain's Pearson PLC media group, are two of the so-called "big six" publishers in the U.S.
The merger is widely seen as an effort to counteract the power of Amazon.com, which has worried publishers by aggressively cutting prices on e-books.
Besides the U.S., the proposed merger includes Random House and Penguin Group's publishing units in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. Penguin's operations in China and Random House's publishers in Spain and Latin America also are part of the proposed merger.
The combined company will control 26 percent of the global consumer publishing market, leaping ahead of the 17 percent share of French publisher Lagardere, according to analyst estimates.
The two media companies had announced the merger last October and expect to finalize the deal in the second half of this year.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.