News Corp. has expressed interest in acquiring Pearson’s Penguin unit, threatening plans to combine the UK publisher with Bertelsmann’s Random House division, according to a source.
News Corp., which owns the HarperCollins publishing house, is preparing an offer, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
Penguin is valued at $1.6 billion by News Corp., the Sunday Times reported, without citing any sources. The London-based newspaper and the New York Post are owned by News Corp.
A bid for Penguin would disrupt negotiations between Pearson to combine the 77-year-old publisher of “The Help” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’” series with Bertelsmann’s Random House. News Corp. is working to bulk up its publishing arm ahead of a planned split of its entertainment businesses from its print units, sources said.
Miranda Higham, a spokeswoman for News Corp., Pearson’s Charles Goldsmith and Bertelsmann’s Stephan Knuettel declined to comment.