MUMBAI: US media conglomerate owner News Corp is said to be readying an offer for publisher Penguin.

Media reports state that Penguin is valued at $1.6 billion by News Corp. News Corp owns HarperCollins Publishers. A union would create the world?s biggest consumer-book publisher.

This could spoil talks about an all-share merger between Pearson?s Penguin and Bertelsmann?s Random House. Random House hit pay dirt with ?Fifty Shades of Grey?. Bertelsmann will have 60 per cent of the new business if the deal with Pearson is successful. This union would have a 30 per cent marketshare share of English book sales.