Deals
U.S. Sues to Block Penguin Deal for Simon & Schuster
- DOJ says merger would give Penguin outsized influence
- Deal would combine the No. 1 and No. 4 among top publishers
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
U.S. antitrust officials sued to block Penguin Random House’s deal to buy Simon & Schuster, saying the tie-up would give Penguin too much control over book publishing and how much authors are paid.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, the Justice Department argued the deal would eliminate the competition between No. 1 Penguin, owned by Bertelsmann SE, and No. 4 Simon & Schuster, owned by ViacomCBS Inc., for authors’ publishing rights.