20th century Random House was founded in 1927 by
Bennett Cerf and
Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the
Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random", which suggested the name Random House. In 1934, they published the first authorized edition of
James Joyce's novel
Ulysses in the Anglophone world.
Ulysses transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it acquired Smith and Haas, and Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 1956. The acquisition of Smith and Haas added authors, including
William Faulkner,
Isak Dinesen,
André Malraux,
Robert Graves, and
Jean de Brunhoff, who wrote the
Babar children's books. Random House also hired editors Harry Maule, Robert Linscott, and Saxe Commins, and they brought authors such as
Sinclair Lewis and
Robert Penn Warren with them. Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the
American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged
dictionary. In October 1959, Random House went public at $11.25 a
share. This was a factor in decisions by other publishing companies, including
Simon & Schuster, to later go public. American publishers
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and
Beginner Books were acquired by Random House in 1960, followed by
Pantheon Books in 1961; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence, such as
Everyman's Library, a series of classical literature reprints. In 1965,
RCA bought Random House as part of a diversification strategy. Random House acquired the paperback book publisher
Ballantine Books in 1973. RCA sold Random House to
Advance Publications in 1980. Random House began publishing audiobooks in 1985. In 1988, Random House acquired
Crown Publishing Group. Also in 1988,
McGraw-Hill acquired Random House's Schools and Colleges division. In 1998,
Bertelsmann AG bought Random House and merged it with
Bantam Doubleday Dell and it soon went global. In 1999, Random House acquired the children's audiobook publisher Listening Library, and sold its distribution division.
21st century In 2001,
Phyllis E. Grann joined Random House as vice chairman. Grann was the CEO for Putnam and had grown that house from $10 million in revenue in 1976, to more than $200 million by 1993 and without increasing their title output. During the
2008 financial crisis, the publishing industry was hit hard with weak retail sales. In May 2008, Random House CEO Peter Olson stepped down and was replaced by
Markus Dohle. In October 2008, Doubleday, a division of Random House, announced that they would lay off 16 people, representing approximately 10% of its workforce. In early December 2008, which became known as Black Wednesday in publishing circles, many publishers including Random House took steps by restructuring their divisions and laying off employees. The reorganization consolidated and created three divisions, including Random House Publishing Group, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and Crown Publishing Group.
Susan Kamil was named editorial director for Dial Press and editor-in-chief of Random House imprints reporting to Gina Centrello, the president and publisher of the Random House Publishing Group. The company also creates story content for media including video games, social networks on the web, and mobile platforms. Random House is one of the largest
English language publishers, and part of a group of publishers once known as the "Big 6" and now known as the "Big Five". In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate
Pearson plc, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Random House and
Penguin Group. On July 1, 2013, the merger was completed, and the new company emerged as
Penguin Random House. When founded, Bertelsmann owned 53% of the joint venture while Pearson owned 47%. McIntosh explained some of the motivation behind the merger in a memo to employees, writing, "Book discovery and buying patterns continue to shift, resulting in growth opportunities in the nonfiction categories in which Crown in particular already has a strong foothold: food, lifestyle, health, wellness, business, and Christian." In 2019, Penguin Random House acquired British children's book publisher Little Tiger Group, including Tiger Tales Press, a U.S. subsidiary, and added it to Random House Children's Books. Penguin Random House announced an agreement to purchase
Boom! Studios in July 2024, where Boom! would become part of Random House Worlds. == Organization ==