Publishers: Head of Penguin Random House resigns

After the failed takeover of the US book publisher Simon & Schuster, the head of the international publishing group Penguin Random House, Markus Dohle, is resigning. The Bertelsmann Group, to which the New York-based publishing group belongs, announced on Friday that Dohle was “resigning from his position as CEO of Penguin Random House at the end of 2022 at his own request and is leaving the Bertelsmann Executive Board on the best of terms at the same time “.

Dohle was quoted as saying: “Following the US antitrust ruling against the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, after almost 15 years on the Bertelsmann Executive Board and at the helm of our global publishing business, I have decided to start the next chapter of to hand Penguin Random House over to new management.” In November it became known that the multi-billion takeover of Simon & Schuster by the Bertelsmann group had failed. The US government had successfully opposed the purchase with an antitrust lawsuit.

Dohle continues to work in an advisory capacity

The Penguin Random House group, which is one of the largest trade publishers in the world, was actually supposed to take over the New York publisher Simon & Schuster, which has successful authors such as Stephen King in its portfolio, for around $2.18 billion. With the acquisition, the group wanted to expand its position in the USA.

According to the information, Dohle will continue to work in an advisory capacity for the Gütersloh-based group. He took over as CEO of Random House in 2008 and became a member of the Bertelsmann Executive Board. With the founding of the Penguin Random House publishing group on July 1, 2013, he was appointed its first CEO.

At the beginning of 2023, manager Nihar Malaviya will take over as interim successor to Dohle at the publishing group. He is already in the position of President & Chief Operating Officer of Penguin Random House US.