In a letter to staff, Random House CEO Markus Dohle praised company performance around the globe, stressing that next year the company will "spend several hundred million dollars to acquire and market our books worldwide."

Archived at the NY Observer, the letter reports "record sales and profitability" from the German Verlagsgruppe Random House and that Random House Mondadori had "exceeded its ambitious fiscal-year targets." Still, there were more layoffs yesterday. If you have something you want to add, email GalleyCat your thoughts.

Dohle's praise for North American employees: "Random House of Canada achieved its financial goals for the year with a record number of #1 bestsellers and numerous literary-award recognitions. In a most difficult year, Random House, Inc. placed more books than ever before on the New York Times Book Review weekly bestseller lists: 265 titles; 25 at #1."