Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle is stepping down

NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest commerce writer, is stepping down. Markus Dohle’s resolution, efficient on the finish of the 12 months, comes simply weeks after a federal choose blocked the corporate’s try to purchase rival Simon & Schuster.

“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, 54, mentioned a press release launched Friday by mother or father firm Bertelsmann, the German conglomerate.

Dohle can also be leaving his seat on the Bertelsmann govt board. His departure was made at “his own request and on the best of mutual terms,” in response to the Bertelsmann announcement. Dohle can be succeeded, on an interim foundation, by Nihar Malaviya, 48, at present president and COO of Penguin Random House.

Dohle was named CEO when Penguin Random House was nonetheless Random House and presided over an period of monumental development, notably the merger in 2012-13 with Penguin that made the brand new firm the business’s unchallenged market chief. But the failed buy of Simon & Schuster proved a humiliation to Dohle, who had strongly pushed for the deal.

“We regret Markus Dohle’s decision to leave Bertelsmann and Penguin Random House,” Christopher Mohn, chair of Bertelsmann’s supervisory board, mentioned in a press release. “He has sustainably focused Penguin Random House on growth and profitability. 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.”