Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains part of that company. Ballantine's original logo was a pair of mirrored letter "B"s back to back, later changing to two "B"s stacked to form an elaborate gate.