Penguin Group

Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initially owning 53% of the joint venture, and Pearson initially owning the remaining 47%. [2] Since December 2019, Penguin Random House has been wholly owned by Bertelsmann.[3]

Penguin Group
Parent companyPenguin Random House
Founded1935 (1935)
(as Penguin Books)
Founder
[1]
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationLondon, United Kingdom
Key peopleJohn Makinson
(chairman & CEO)
Publication typesBooks
Revenue £1.05 billion (2010)
Official websitepenguin.co.uk

Penguin Books has its registered office in City of Westminster, London.[4][5]

Its British division is Penguin Books Ltd. Other separate divisions can be found in the United States, Ireland, New Zealand, India, Australia, Canada, China, Brazil and South Africa.

History

Penguin Books Ltd. (est. 1935) of the United Kingdom was bought over by Pearson Longman in 1970. In 1975, Penguin acquired the American hardcover firm Viking Press.[6] In 1986, Penguin acquired the New American Library, a mass-market paperback publisher.[7]

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. was formed in 1996 as a result of the merger between Penguin Books USA and the Putnam Berkley Group after Penguin acquired Putnam Berkley from MCA.[8][9] The newly formed company was originally called Penguin Putnam Inc., but, in 2003, it changed its name to Penguin Group (USA) Inc. to reflect the parent Pearson PLC's grouping of all the Penguin companies worldwide under the supervisory umbrella of Pearson's own Penguin Group division.

The different Penguin companies use many imprints, many of which used to be independent publishers.[10] Penguin Group (USA) Inc. also operates its own speaker's bureau that books speaking engagements for many of the publisher's authors. In 2011, the online writing and publishing community Book Country was launched as a subsidiary of Penguin Group USA.[11]

In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed United States v. Apple Inc., naming Apple, Penguin, and four other major publishers as defendants. The suit alleged that they conspired to fix prices for e-books and weaken Amazon.com's position in the market in violation of antitrust law.[12] In December 2013, a federal judge approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which Penguin and the other publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the price-fixing.[13]

In October 2012, Pearson entered into talks with rival conglomerate Bertelsmann, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Penguin Group and Random House. The houses were considered two of the 'Big Six' publishing companies prior to the merger,[14] which became the 'Big Five' upon its completion. The European Union approved the Penguin Random House merger on 5 April 2013.

Imprints

Penguin Group imprints include the following:[15]

gollark: You should not, in fact, be trusting said giant profit-maximizing entity and every future version of it and everywhere they might be sending all the data.
gollark: And they probably can make money off it.
gollark: Your argument seems to just be "I totally trust this giant profit-maximizing entity composed of thousands of people and also everyone associated with it and everyone who might be associated with it in the future".
gollark: No, you're insufficiently paranoid.
gollark: If you're a political activist or something, they can dredge up old data to discredit you.

See also

References
  1. Company history, Penguin Random House
  2. Mark Sweney "Penguin and Random House merger to create biggest book publisher ever seen", The Guardian, 29 October 2012
  3. Spahr, Wolfgang (December 18, 2019) "BMG Parent Bertelsmann to Acquire Full Stake in Penguin Random House" Billboard
  4. "26. What is Penguin Books Limited's company registration number? Archived 11 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine" Penguin Books. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
  5. "Maps Archived 5 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine." City of Westminster. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
  6. Whitman, Alden (11 November 1975). "Viking Press Is Sold to Penguin Books". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  7. McDowell, Edwin. "PENGUIN AGREES TO BUY NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  8. Lyall, Sarah (27 November 1996). "Penguin Is Buying MCA's Putnam Berkley for $336 Million". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  9. "Now for the Grann Finale". NYMag.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  10. "Penguin Group (USA): About Us".
  11. "What's the Penguin About?". Bookcountry.com. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  12. Mui, Ylan Q. and Hayley Tsukayama (11 April 2012). "Justice Department sues Apple, publishers over e-book prices". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  13. Molina, Brett (25 March 2014). "E-book price fixing settlements rolling out". USA Today. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  14. Edgecliffe, Andrew (26 October 2012). "Penguin and Random House in deal talks". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  15. "Penguin: Publishers/Imprints".
  16. "Avery – Publishers – Penguin Group (USA)". Us.penguingroup.com. 4 September 2001. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  17. "HPBooks – Publishers – Penguin Group (USA)". Us.penguingroup.com. Archived from the original on 16 February 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  18. "Penguin Young Readers to Launch New Imprint Kokila". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  19. "Awa Press | Penguin Books New Zealand". Penguin.co.nz. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  20. "The Penguin Press – Publishers – Penguin Group (USA)". Us.penguingroup.com. Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  21. "TARCHERPERIGEE". penguingroup. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  22. "Who Are 'The Big Six'?". Fiction Matters. 5 March 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
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