ViacomCBS announced Wednesday morning that it has a definitive agreement to sell Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion in cash, “from existing liquid funds.” The transaction is expected to close in 2021, with S&S ceo Jonathan Karp telling staff that will “likely” happen “in the second half of 2021 at the earliest.” It is subject to regulatory approvals — primarily in the US — and competing bidders such as HarperCollins parent News Corp. have already declared they believe “it will clearly be a serious antitrust issue.” Bertelsmann has already indicated it does not expect approval issues. […]
Finance
News Corp CEO Says PRH Would Face Antitrust Fight Over Simon & Schuster
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.” […]
The Top Bidders for Simon & Schuster Are…Exactly As Expected
“Three people familiar with the process” have confirmed to the NYT that parents of the two largest trade publishers in the US — Penguin Random House and HarperCollins — are the two leading bidders for Simon & Schuster at this point. Which is exactly as was expected, since the company will yield greater financial efficiencies if it is acquired by another, larger trade publisher. “At least one of the offers has topped $1.7 billion,” two of the people said to the paper, with final bids due prior to Thanksgiving. If true, that would be a substantial premium over prices for […]
Authors Guild Calls for Albert Whitman to Pay Overdue Royalties
The Authors Guild made a statement on Monday in support of authors who are owed royalties by publisher Albert Whitman and Company, calling for “transparency and immediate rectification of past due royalties.” They write, “Over the last few years, the Authors Guild has contacted AW&C on numerous occasions to convey members’ concerns involving delayed royalty payments and the accuracy of accounting reports.” The statement followed a November 9 thread on Twitter from Joan He, author of YA book Descendant of the Crane, that said she was considering suing the company for copyright infringement. He wrote, “Back in May, they failed […]
Deed Shows Sale Price for Quad’s West Virginia Plant
When Quad sold their two remaining book printing plants to Bertelsmann’s Berryville Graphics on October 31, the details of the sale were not provided. Now the Herald-Mail reports that a deed recording the sale, filed with the County Clerk’s office on Tuesday, indicates that Berryville paid $11.3 million for the facility in Martinsburg, West Virginia. (They also purchased a plant of similar size in Fairfield, PA.) Bertelsmann Printing Group vp John Twomey, indicated that the Martinsburg plant has about 200 employees, as does the facility in Pennsylvania, with employment “down about one-third from pre-COVID-19 levels.” They add, “The major change […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Biggest Investor Wants Out
In stark contrast to the company’s official happy talk about selling off their heritage by disposing of the trade division and positioning a struggling textbook publisher as a “pure-play learning technology company,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s biggest investor indicated that they have had enough. Anchore Advisors, the largest shareholder with just under 16 percent of shares, filed a form with the SEC indicating that they want to sell. The investment firm — whose senior portfolio manager Daniel Allen sits on the HMH board — and HMH have terminated an investor rights agreement that dates back to 2012 and “Anchorage has requested […]