The merger of Penguin and Random House cleared a big hurdle Thursday.
The two companies said that the Department of Justice had closed its review of the proposed merger “without conditions.â€
Last October, Pearson, which owns Penguin, and Bertelsmann, which owns Random House, announced their intention to join the two publishing houses into one mammoth company. The idea was that the combined entity would be better positioned in the digital market to combat companies like Amazon, whose aggressive pricing was putting pressure on big publishers.
Under terms of the deal, Bertelsmann would own 53% and Pearson 47% of the new company, to be called Penguin Random House.
Because of the size of the enterprise, it would control more than 30 percent of all trade book publishing. That had raised questions about whether government regulators would balk because of anti-trust concerns.
“This positive first decision by one of the antitrust authorities is an important milestone on the pah to uniting two of the world’s leading publishing companies into a truly global publishing group,†Thomas Rabe, chairman and chief executive of Bertelsmann, said in a statement. “It will enable investments worldwide in new digital publishing models, in new distribution paths, products and services and in the major growth markets.â€
The proposed merger is still under review by the European Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau and various other antitrust authorities around the world. The companies said they still expected the merger to be completed by late this year.
