PRH, S&S deal scrapped
Penguin Random House (PRH) parent company Bertelsmann won’t appeal a US court’s decision to block its acquisition of Simon & Schuster (S&S).
In a statement, Bertelsmann said it will ‘advance the growth of its global book publishing business without the previously planned merger of PRH and S&S’. ‘Following discussions with S&S shareholder Paramount Global, Bertelsmann will not pursue its original plan of appealing against the ruling,’ the company said.
PRH had previously said it planned to appeal the decision; however, it required S&S parent company Paramount Global to extend the deal agreement, which expires on 22 November.
In a statement, PRH said that while it ‘remains convinced that it is the best home for S&S’s employees and authors, and together with Bertelsmann, we did everything possible to complete the acquisition’ it has ‘to accept Paramount’s decision not to move forward’.
As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in 2020 Bertelsmann announced its plans to acquire S&S from media company ViacomCBS for US$2.175 billion (A$2.95b). It expected the deal to settle in 2021. However, the US Department of Justice sued to block the acquisition, alleging the move would ‘enable Penguin Random House, which is already the largest book publisher in the world, to exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work’.
Category: International news