The company was founded as Editorial Planeta in 1949. was the founder of the company. José Manuel Lara Hernández's son,
José Manuel Lara Bosch, became the company president upon the death of his father in 2003. Also in 2003, Planeta became the primary shareholder of
Antena 3. The merger of Antena 3 with
LaSexta (by means of the absorption of the latter) was announced in December 2011 even though it was not formalised until October 2012. After the merger, LaSexta somewhat retained a perception of a left-leaning profile, starkly contrasting to those of the rest of Planeta media properties. With its purchase of
Editis in 2009, Planeta became one of the largest publishers in the world, with over 1 billion dollars of revenue that year. Both in 2013 and 2014 the company was the eight largest book publisher in the world. Following the death of Lara Bosch in 2015, became the president of the company. Hitherto headquartered in
Barcelona, Grupo Planeta decided to move its head office to Madrid in October 2017 because of the "uncertainty" caused by the thwarted
Catalan declaration of independence. ==Selected imprints==