MARKUS DOHLE
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF BERTELSMANN SE & CO. KGaA
October 29, 2012Dear Random House Client,
I am writing to you to expand a little on today’s news about
Random House’s agreement to
combine with Penguin. With this new partnership, we have the opportunity to bring together two
of the world’s most successful and admired trade brands to benefit authors, booksellers, readers,
and extend our portfolio of resources across a greater range of content.
The goal of this new venture is to continue to grow, and I’m excited about ensuring that you will
also be the beneficiary of this growth. But I realize the news of this announcement must raisesome questions for you, the first and foremost being whether the new company will remaincommitted to providing you with the premium model of sales and distribution embodied inRandom House Publisher Services. I am writing to you today because, while there are manypost-closing issues my management team and I will have to figure out at a later date, ourcommitment to you is as strong as ever. Random House Publisher Services has been an absolutesuccess story for our company, and there is no reason for us to change course.
If anything, I’m
confident that the combined resources of the new company will be able to provide you with evenmore robust support than we have in the past. That business combination is all ahead for us. Wewill keep you informed of developments, but for now it is still business as usual with usoperating independently from Penguin.Thank you for the faith you have already entrusted in the Random House team, and for the greatwork I know we will continue to do together in the future.
Let’s together fo
cus on making this afabulous fall season for your wonderful books and authors.All my best,