bertelsmann

Random House and top literary agent Andrew Wylie have settled their fight over his plans to publish e-books of older works from big name authors he represents. But while the battle is over, the settlement announcement raises more questions than it answers about the future of e-publishing.

The publisher has a long string of acquisitions to its name, but lately it has been streamlining significantly too. The latest reshuffle has created a high-level M&A role. Some worry this may mean further consolidation -- along with more turmoil.

Media company Bertelsmann's overall year-end earnings report cited a "difficult economic environment" for plunging earnings and profits, but giant publishing division Random House sent out its own annual missive full of surprising optimism, thanks to triple-digit increases in e-book sales.

Any publisher worth its salt will tell you that the real money in the business doesn't come from the current bestsellers by Stephanie Meyer and James Patterson, but the backlist: that deep catalog of books that were published years ago. Titles like J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye...

Just three years ago, the Crown Publishing Group was the most profitable division of Random House, the largest U.S. trade publisher of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Boldface names -- Barack Obama, Rachael Ray, Deepak Chopra, Ann Coulter -- produced a string of hits. And narrative non-fiction...