With any suspense taken away by last week’s Reuters leak, the European Commission officially approved the Penguin Random House merger Friday morning “without conditions,” following in line with approvals from the DOJ, Australia, and New Zealand. EU regulators said in an emailed statement obtained by Bloomberg: “The commission’s investigation revealed no evidence that the transaction would lead to risks of coordination among publishers in relation to the acquisition of authors’ rights and the sale of English language books to dealers.” It adds, “the merged entity will furthermore face a concentrated retail base, such as supermarkets for print books and large […]
