The head of Penguin Random House quit after the court blocked the company’s plan to buy rival Simon & Schuster for $2.2 billion.
The company said that Markus Dohle would leave his job at the end of the year. He is leaving “at his request and on the best of terms,” the company said.
Mr. Dohle has led Penguin since 2013, when it became the biggest book publisher in the world after another big merger.
The deal to buy Simon & Schuster fell through because of worries about competition.
A judge in the US sided with the US government, which had tried to stop the merger because it would hurt writers’ pay and opportunities.
Penguin’s German owner, Bertelsmann, told Reuters that the company would continue to look for smaller deals, including in the US.
Nihar Malaviya, in charge of Penguin in the US right now, will take over as interim CEO on January 1.
In 2013, Penguin from the UK and Random House from New York came together to form Penguin Random House.
Penguin has worked with well-known authors like Sylvia Plath, George Orwell, and Virginia Woolf.
It has published books by Dan Brown, Zadie Smith, and Marian Keyes in the past few years.
Stephen King, Jennifer Weiner, and Hillary Clinton, who ran for president of the United States, are all published by Simon & Schuster.
Mr. King was one of the big names who spoke out against the merger on behalf of the government. Under US President Joe Biden, the government has taken a tougher stance against monopolies.
Bertelsmann said at first that it would fight the US decision in court, but the deal was canceled in the end. It has to pay a breakup fee of $200 million.
Since 1994, Mr. Dohle has worked for Bertelsmann in different ways. He was in charge of Random House when the big merger with Penguin was announced.
Penguin Random House acquisition of Simon & Schuster blocked
A US court has stopped a $2.2 billion (£1.9 billion) merger between Penguin Random House, the biggest book publisher in the world, and Simon & Schuster, its biggest rival.
US District Judge Florence Pan said in short order on Monday that the deal could “substantially” make the publishing industry less competitive.
In November 2017, the US Department of Justice sued to stop the deal.
In 2013, Penguin Random House was made when two big publishers from the US and UK joined forces.
Penguin said it would appeal the decision, calling it “an unfortunate setback for readers and authors.”
Penguin has worked with well-known authors like Sylvia Plath, George Orwell, and Virginia Woolf.
It has published books by Zadie Smith, Marian Keyes, and Dan Brown in recent years.
Stephen King, Jennifer Weiner, and Hillary Clinton, who ran for president of the United States in 2008, have all published books by Simon & Schuster.
During a trial in August, the US government said that Penguin and Simon & Schuster would control almost half of the market for publishing rights to best-selling books if they worked together.
Penguin’s lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, said that readers and authors would get “enormous benefits” from the two publishing houses because they would still compete after merging.
The best-selling horror writer Stephen King, on the other hand, didn’t believe it.
Allen Lane and his two brothers, Richard and John, started the British publishing company Penguin Books together in 1935.
Its logo has been on some of the most well-known books in publishing history.
When the company put out Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence in 1960 and The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie in 1988, they caused a lot of trouble.
In 2013, Penguin and Random House, based in New York, joined forces to become the largest publishing house in the world.
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At the time, the European Commission said that the combined business would not hurt competition because it would have “several strong competitors.”
Bertelsmann, the German company that owns Random House, first owned 53% of Penguin Random House. After that, Pearson owned Penguin and owned the other 47%.
In April 2020, Bertelsmann was the only owner of Penguin Random House.
