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Random House Buys Stake in Mobile Content Publisher Vocel

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 22, 2005 - 4:41am.
Frankfurt -- Random House, the publishing unit of German media group Bertelsmann, announced that it has bought a minority stake in Vocel, a San Diego-based provider of educational materials for wireless devices. Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed. Random House said the move would allow the company to expand Vocel's offerings to deliver foreign language study guides, video game playing tips and other wireless content over mobile phones. "Random House considers the mobile phone to be an important future platform for the delivery of information to consumers," said Random House Ventures president Richard Sarnoff.
tags: Stake | Mobiles | Random | Vocel |

Audible, Random House Joint Venture to Sell Audiobooks in Germany

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 31, 2004 - 9:59am.
Wayne, N.J. -- Audiobook publisher Audible on Tuesday announced the formation of an international joint venture with publisher Verlagsgruppe Random House and Holtzbrinck Networxs to create a German-language version of its online audiobook store. Audible.de is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2004 and will consist of a German language site featuring German audio content as well as Audible's English-language content for download. New Jersey-based Audible also announced on Tuesday that it partnered with C-SPAN to offer free audio downloads of keynote speeches from the 2004 Republican National Convention.
tags: Germany | Audible | Venture | Audiobooks | Random |

RosettaBooks, Random House Settle E-Book Publishing Rights Litigation

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 9, 2003 - 2:56am.
New York -- E-book publisher RosettaBooks announced on Wednesday that it has settled outstanding litigation with publisher Random House, over its sales of e-book versions of titles from Random House authors. The settlement calls for no payments from either side; instead, the two parties said they will partner to expand the e-book market. Random House will grant RosettaBooks exclusive licenses to publish 51 e-book titles, from authors including Kurt Vonnegut and William Styron. In 2001, Random House sued RosettaBooks, arguing that its contracts with its authors covered rights to e-book versions of their works. "We are very glad to be able to put our differences behind us and to now work co1laboratively rather than combatively to enhance RosettaBooks' and our commitment to electronic publishing," said Katherine J. Trager, senior vice president and general counsel for Random House.
tags: E-Book | Litigation | Random | RosettaBooks |