Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle is stepping down

Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Markus Dohle announced Friday he will step down from his position as CEO of publishing giant Penguin Random House at the end of the year.

Penguin Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann, announced the move in a press release weeks after a deal to purchase competitor Simon & Schuster was scrapped in the wake of a federal judge's decision to block the purchase.

"Following the antitrust decision in the U.S. against the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, I have decided, after nearly 15 years on the executive board of Bertelsmann and at the helm of our global publishing business, to hand over the next chapter of Penguin Random House to new leadership," Dohle said.

The merger was announced in November 2020, but a year later the Justice Department sued, saying the deal would "exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work." The court ultimately ruled to block the deal that the acquisition would harm competition in the publishing market.

Last month, Simon & Schuster's parent company, Paramount Global, backed out of the deal, leaving Penguin Random House with a $200 million tab.

"We regret Markus Dohle's decision to leave Bertelsmann and Penguin Random House. He has sustainably focused Penguin Random House on growth and profitability," said Chairman of Bertelsmann's supervisory board Christoph Mohn. "Under his leadership, our book division more than doubled its revenues and quintupled its profit. The fact that our global book publishing group is in such a strong position today is largely thanks to Markus Dohle."

Dohle was appointed as CEO of Random House in 2008, and after a merger with Penguin in 2013, he became the first CEO of the Penguin Random House group.

In addition to stepping down as CEO of Penguin Random House, Dohle is also leaving his position on Bertelsmann's executive board.