Deals
News Corp. Said to Prepare Bid for Pearson’s Penguin Unit
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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has expressed interest in acquiring Pearson Plc’s Penguin unit, threatening plans for a combination of the U.K. publisher with Bertelsmann SE’s Random House division, according to a person familiar with the matter.
News Corp., which owns the HarperCollins publishing house, is preparing an offer for Penguin, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Penguin is valued at 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) by News Corp., the Sunday Times reported yesterday, without citing anyone. The newspaper is owned by New York-based News Corp.