Pearson and Bertelsmann in Talks to Combine Random House and Penguin

Pearson, the British media conglomerate, said Thursday that it was in talks to combine its Penguin publishing house with Random House, owned by Bertelsmann of Germany. The combination would create a division with greater scale that could compete in a rapidly evolving eBook market.

A big question hanging over any combination of Random House and Penguin would be antitrust issues. Together, Penguin and Random House would control more than 20 percent of the United States book market, for example.

Financial details of the discussions…were not immediately available, though Bertelsmann would end up controlling more than 50 percent of the combined