Simon & Schuster’s corporate parent has officially The agreement was ended Penguin Random House To purchase A proposed sale by the publisher a federal judge already had blocked last month.
Paramount Global announced Monday that it plans to continue selling Simon & Schuster, a nearly century-old company where authors include Stephen KingColleen and Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster has had a strong 2022 so far, thanks in part to bestsellers by Hoover and King, who had opposed the merger and even testified on behalf of the government during last summer’s antitrust trial.
“Simon & Schuster remains a non-core asset to Paramount, as was determined in early 2020 when Paramount conducted a strategic review of its assets,” Paramount announces. “Simon & Schuster is a highly valuable business with a recent record of strong performance, however it is not video-based and therefore does not fit strategically within Paramount’s broader portfolio.”
Penguin Random House owes a $200 million termination fee to Paramount, according to the agreement’s original terms. Penguin Random House is Proprietary by Bertelsmann is a German conglomerate.
Other members of book publishing’s so-called “Big Five” — which include Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishing, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan — may now try for Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins was also among the losers. Penguin Random House Offers of $2.2 billion Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch also expressed concern during the trial. Simon & Schuster.
Penguin Random HouseIt had been planned to appeal the decisionMonday,, released a statement stating that it was still certain it would have been “the best home for Simon & Schuster’s employees and authors.”
“However, we have to accept Paramount’s decision not to move forward,” the publisher’s statement reads.
The merger of these two publishing giants was proposed. by The largest book publishing house in American history was announced in late 2020. Last year, the Justice Department sued. They claimed that the new merger would make it harder for other publishers to publish best-selling books. This would also result in lower advances for authors. U.S. District Judge Florence Y. Pan seemed to favor the government’s arguments during the 3-week trial and issued a decision in late October agreeing that the merger would damage book publishing.
Her ruling was a break from decades of precedent, when numerous publishing mergers were allowed with little objection, and fit a larger pattern of the Biden administration’s efforts to more forcefully apply antitrust law.
On Monday Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp issued a company memo expressing optimism about the publisher’s future.
“We will be celebrating our 100th anniversary in April of 2024, regardless of who our owner is — and we will have much to celebrate,” He wrote.
Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter will examine how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of today’s executives—and how they can best navigate those challenges. Register here
