The European Commission in Brussels has approved without conditions the merger of Random House and Penguin Group. The merger has already been approved by regulators in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand and is still being reviewed in several other countries, including China and Canada.
Under the merger, which was announced last October, Bertelsmann, owner of Random House, will own 53% of Penguin Random, and Pearson, which owns Penguin, will own 47%. The merged company will include all of Random House and Penguin Group's publishing units in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, as well as Penguin's operations in China and Random House's publishers in Spain and Latin America. Bertelsmann's German publishing group, Verlagsgruppe Random House, is not included in the merger.