Penguin and Random House: facts and figures Its Vintage Books division is also responsible for publishing the Fifty Shades trilogy. Random House announced this year that it would team up with FremantleMedia to develop scripted programs based on its books. Both companies are owned by Bertelsmann. Random House Studio is the publisher's production arm for film and television, of which the most recent release was One Day, starring Anne Hathaway. German-language publisher Verlagsgruppe Random House will not be included in the deal, Bertelsmann and Pearson said on Monday. Verlagsgruppe is Germany's second largest Germany publisher, employs about 850 people, and publishes roughly 2,500 titles per year. Penguin Penguin was founded by Allen Lane in 1935, with the aim of selling good quality fiction at an affordable price. The first Penguin paperbacks included works by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie - and cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of cigarettes. Penguin's distinctive logo was the brainchild of his secretary, who suggested the animal to Mr Lane when he said that he wanted a "dignified but flippant" symbol for the business. Today, the London-based company employs 5,500 people across the world, with around 950 in the UK. Following its decision in 1960 to publish a complete version of D.H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, Penguin was charged under the Obscene Publications Act in 1960. It was acquitted, and subsequently sold two million copies in six weeks. The Penguin second edition of the book, published in 1961, contains a dedication, which reads: For having published this book, Penguin Books were prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, 1959 at the Old Bailey in London from 20 October to 2 November 1960. This edition is therefore dedicated to the twelve jurors, three women and nine men, who returned a verdict of 'Not Guilty' and thus made D. H. Lawrence's last novel available for the first time to the public in the United Kingdom. Penguin also published Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses in the 1980s, and Michael Moore's Stupid White Men in the UK in 2000, after attempts to ban it in the US. Penguin floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1961. The company was bought by Pearson in 1970.