Pearson released its year-end results this morning in which it included previously reported Penguin results for the first half of 2013 and offered a small glimpse of Penguin Random House’s performance since the merger was completed July 1. The company reported a contribution to earnings of 78 million pounds from Penguin, a figure that represents six months of just Penguin earnings in the first half of 2013 (which was 28 million pounds) plus another six months of its share of profit "from associated interest in the PRH venture."
In 2012, Penguin had operating income of 98 million pounds and Pearson said the decline reflects accounting tax changes in the second half of the year when Penguin, as PRH, moved to associate status (Pearson has a 47% stakeholder in PRH). More detailed results of PRH are expected when Bertelsmann, which has a 53% stake in PRH, releases its results March 26.
In its report, Pearson said that pro forma e-book sales accounted for about 20% of PRH’s global revenue in 2013 with e-book growth slowing at Penguin while e-book sales at Random House declined “significantly” following the huge e-book sales of the Fifty Shades trilogy in 2012. Pearson also noted that on a pro forma basis, PRH had 480 New York Times bestsellers in the U.S. last year while the combined company had 102 BookScan bestsellers in the U.K. At DK, the DK Lego properties sold over 10 million units in the year. The Author Solutions subsidiary grew “significantly” in the year as well.
