Publishing giants, Random House and Penguin have completed their merger to create a new leading book publishing company.

Markus Dohle, chief executive of the new entity wrote in a letter to the staff members that, "As we begin this new chapter in our history, I am in the truly privileged position of being able to announce a team of such depth and breadth of experience, underpinned by passion for our industry, our authors, and the books we publish."

He assured staff members that the merger between the two publishing businesses would not impact jobs. Random House has been a part of German media giant Bertelsmann, and Penguin is owned by British education giant Pearson. Bertelsmann will appoint five members to the board of the new company while Pearson will have four directors on the board. Bertelsmann will hold a 53 per cent stake in the new company while the remaining 47 per cent will be held by Pearson.

John Makinson, who has been working as the chief executive of Penguin has been named chairman along with Mr Dohle. The new firm publishes 15,000 titles and had sales of £2.6 billion around the world. It recorded an operating profit of operating profit of £346 million.