As is evident from the chronologies below, there has been a steady flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the book publishing sector since around the 1990s. At the moment, the U.S. Department of Justice has put a pause on the next big idea—PRH purchasing S&S. We will see.
Penguin Random House in the U.S.
1996
Penguin owner Pearson buys Putnam Berkley.
1998
Bertelsmann buys Random House from Advance Publications.
1999
Random House buys Listening Library.
2000
Pearson buys Dorling Kindersley.
2001
Random House buys Golden Books.
2002
Penguin buys Rough Guides.
2006
Random House buys Multnomah.
2009
Random House buys Ten Speed Press.
2013
Random House and Penguin merge.
2017
Penguin Random House buys Sasquatch Books.
2018
Penguin Random House buys assets of Rodale Books.
2019
Penguin Random House buys 45% stake in Sourcebooks.
Hachette Book Group
1990
Time Inc. and Warner Communications merge and combine their book publishing divisions.
2002
Time Warner Book Group is rebranded AOL Time Warner Book Group following merger of Time Warner and AOL.
2006
Lagardère acquires Time Warner Book Group.
2013
Hachette Book Group buys 1,000 titles from Hyperion.
2015
Hachette Book Group buys Black Dog & Leventhal.
2016
Hachette Book Group buys Perseus Books Group publishing division.
2018
Hachette Book Group buys Worthy Publishing.
2020
Hachette Book Group buys 1,000 titles from Disney Book Group.
2021
Hachette Book Group buys Workman Publishing.
Macmillan Publishers
1985
Holtzbrinck buys Holt.
1994
Holtzbrinck buys Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
1995
Holtzbrinck buys the Macmillan Group.
HarperCollins in the U.S.
1999
HarperCollins buys Morrow/Avon, Ecco Press, and Amistad Press.
2011
HarperCollins buys Thomas Nelson.
2014
HarperCollins buys Harlequin.
2021
HarperCollins buys Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade division.
The Current Simon & Schuster
1998
Viacom sells S&S’s education, professional, and reference divisions to Pearson and Hicks, Muse, Tate and retains the trade group.
2006
Simon & Schuster buys Howard Books.
2016
Simon & Schuster buys Adams Media.
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