News Corp. ceo Robert Thomson said in answer to a question at the company’s annual meeting he has no doubt that Penguin Random House would face major regulatory issues in the US if they were to prevail in the bidding to acquire Simon & Schuster. “It will clearly be a serious antitrust issue if Bertelsmann acquires Simon & Schuster,” Thomson said. “However cute and clever the structure, if Bertelsmann is a beneficiary, it will be a book behemoth. And this will certainly be a profound antitrust issue for the entire book industry and no doubt for authors around the world.” […]