Brussels, 08/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 5 April, the European Commission authorised the proposed creation of Penguin Random House, which combines parts of the publishing businesses of the German media company Bertelsmann and of the British publishing company Pearson.
The Commission assessed the impact of the transaction on the upstream markets for the acquisition of authors' rights for English language books in the European Economic Area (EEA) and worldwide, and on the downstream markets for the sale of English language books to dealers in the EEA, in particular in the UK and Ireland. It found that on both types of markets the new entity Penguin Random House will continue to face competition from several large and numerous small and medium sized publishers. As regards the sale of English language books, the Commission states that the merged entity will furthermore face a concentrated retail base, such as supermarkets for print books and large online retailers for e-books, like Amazon. In addition, the investigation revealed no evidence that the transaction would lead to risks of coordination among publishers in relation to the acquisition of authors' rights and the sale of English language books to dealers.
The Commission also assessed the impact of the transaction on third party book distribution, where both Random House and Penguin are active, as well as on the book production market given the vertical relationship between Bertelsmann's activities in book production (through its Arvato division and BePrinters) and Penguin Random House's activities in the sale of English language books to dealers. The Commission found that the parties have low market shares and that many alternative suppliers for book production and third party book distribution services remain active in the EEA.
The Commission therefore concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the EEA. (OL/transl.fl)