Pearson to sell its 47% stake in A Song of Ice and Fire publisher Penguin Random House

All is not well in the publishing world. This morning, shares in Pearson, one of the largest publishing companies in the world and the parent company of A Song of Ice and Fire publisher Penguin Random House, fell by 23% in UK trading. This came after Pearson announced “unprecedented decline in Q4 2016 in our North American higher education courseware business.” To help pull itself out of decline, it also announced that it would sell its 47% stake in Penguin Random House to partner Bertelsmann, another massive publishing company. From its statement:

"With the integration of Penguin Random House complete, and with greater industry-wide stability on digital terms, we intend to issue an exit notice regarding our 47% stake in Penguin Random House to our JV partner Bertelsmann in the contractual window, with a view to selling our stake or recapitalising the business and extracting a dividend."

So basically, Pearson is selling off its shares to recoup the losses it’s taking in other parts of its business.

Pearson, which originally owned Penguin, joined forced with Bertelsmann, which originally owned Random House, to form Penguin Random House in 2013. Bertelsmann owns the other 53% of Penguin Random House. The sale, assuming Pearson follows through, probably won’t affect A Song of Ice and Fire much, if at all. After all, it’s not like Pearson is selling its shares to a strange company with different ideas about how to handle George R.R. Martin’s series. Bertelsmann has been a part of the company since it was formed.

h/t Business Insider