PublishersLunch
Another piece of speculation from when the Penguin Random House merger was coming together has also been confirmed: Random House will purchase Mondadori's fifty percent share in their Spanish and Latin American book publishing joint venture, Random House Mondadori. Like the larger Penguin merger, the Mondadori buyout is subject to approval by Spanish antitrust authorities, and "is expected to close before year-end." We were told by a company spokesperson the buyout was "long in the works." The timing, coming just a week after the Penguin Random House announcement, was "more coincidental than purposeful."
Random House Mondadori will keep its name in the short term but it "will be changed in the near future to reflect its new ownership structure." Núria Cabutí will remain RH Mondadori ceo, and "local organizational structures...and the editorial identities of the respective publishing programs" are scheduled to stay intact. Bertelsmann ceo Thomas Rabe says in a statement that "by maximizing its holding in Random House Mondadori, [Bertelsmann] is embracing an opportunity to significantly improve both its position in the Spanish book market and its access to the growing Spanish-language markets of Latin America. We are very grateful to Mondadori for our longstanding and successful partnership." That Latin America strength pairs with Penguin's large minority stake in Brazil's Companhia das Letras, and the buyout only further increases the international strength of the merged Penguin Random House.
Random House ceo Markus Dohle added: "Mondadori is one of the world's great publishers, and I thank Maurizio Costa and his team for their enormously productive partnership these past eleven years. Together we have helped our Spanish colleagues build Random House Mondadori as a publisher that has become an undeniable commercial and cultural force in Spain and Latin America, and internationally. Now, Random House will continue to provide our Spanish company with the creative, financial, and technological resources to grow as a print publisher and become a leading Spanish-language e-book publisher. Núria Cabutí has instilled a corporate culture and standard of excellence at Random House Mondadori that is a perfect foundation for achieving this."