Penguin, trying to ensure a clean slate before its planned merger with Random House, said last week that it was settling a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department over the pricing of e-books.
In a statement, the company said, “Penguin has always maintained, and continues to maintain, that it has done nothing wrong and has no case to answer.”
Nevertheless, the company said, it was agreeing to settle because of the impending merger of Random House, a division of the German media company Bertelsmann, and Penguin, a division of the English conglomerate Pearson.
That deal, in which Bertelsmann will assume 53-percent control of the new company, was announced in October.
The publishing industry is beginning to consolidate to try to better meet the online challenge from Amazon, analysts say.
Peng uin wrote in its statement, “It is also in everyone’s interests that the proposed Penguin Random House company should begin life with a clean sheet of paper.”
In April, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against five major publishing houses and Apple, charging that they had conspired to fix the price of e-books.
These firms had moved from a wholesale pricing model that allowed retailers to charge what they wanted to a system that allowed publishers to begin setting their own e-book prices, a model known as “agency pricing.”
Business, Pages 11 on 12/24/2012