Parent company |
Bertelsmann (53%) Pearson PLC (47%) |
---|---|
Founded | 2013 |
Headquarters location | New York City, New York |
Distribution | Worldwide |
Key people | Markus Dohle (CEO) Milena Alberti (CFO) Madeline McIntosh (President, Penguin Publishing Group) |
Publication types | Books |
No. of employees | 10,000 (as of July 1, 2013) |
Official website | penguinrandomhouse |
Penguin Random House (PRH) is a company formed by the merger of book publishers Random House (owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann), and Penguin Group (owned by British publishing company Pearson PLC). Penguin Random House markets itself as "the world's first truly global trade book" publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of a £2.4 billion merger between Bertelsmann and Pearson to combine their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively.
Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India; Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and South Africa; Dorling Kindersley worldwide; and Random House’s companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile.
Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across five continents. It comprises almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
Penguin Random House was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group. The creation of the company has been referred to as the publishing industry's response to the increasing dominance of Amazon.com in the book market. PRH relaunched Book Country, Penguin's languishing online unit in July 2013.
In September 2014, Random House Studio signed a first look production deal with Universal Pictures, under which Random House would be producer on the projects developed and filmed based on Penguin Random House books. This buttresses the existing Universal subsidiary Focus Features' deal with Random House Films. Having spearhead the creative on PRH Children's Puffin Rock animation, Richard Haines to head up PHR Children's TV development strategy with the assistance of licensing publishing and TV development executive Emily Campan. Haines would report to PRH Children’s managing director, Francesca Dow.