ViacomCBS Selling Simon & Schuster, Catches Antitrust Flak

ViacomCBS will sell its Simon & Schuster publishing business to Bertelsmann, the parent of Penguin Random House, for $2.18 billion, it said Wednesday. It said proceeds will go into strategic growth priorities like video streaming, and paying down corporate debt. The deal, expected to close next year, got criticism. Robert Thomson, CEO of rival News Corp, which bid for Simon & Schuster, said Bertelsmann "is not just buying a book publisher, but buying market dominance as a book behemoth." Open Markets Institute said DOJ should challenge the deal "to make clear that no further consolidation of power will be allowed in America’s book publishing industry, which is already too concentrated." It urged DOJ "immediately take steps to break Amazon’s power over the sale and distribution of books in America, which is the ultimate source of the pressures on America’s authors, editors, and publishers."