Penguin, Random House merge cleared

The European Union cleared the planned merger between Britain's Penguin Books and German-owned Random House on Friday, as the bloc's executive found that the merged entity wouldstill face strong market competition, dpa reported."The (European) Commission found that the transaction would notraise competition concerns, in particular because the merged entitywill continue to face several strong competitors," it said in astatement.The deal, which is reportedly worth 2.4 billion pounds (3.6billion dollars), would create the world's biggest consumer bookpublishing business, according to Germany's Bertelsmann SE andPearson Plc in Britain.