Paramount sells Simon & Schuster to private investment firm

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/07/ [login to see] /simon-schuster-sold
Simon & Schuster has been acquired by private investment firm KKR for $1.62 billion, according to a joint statement between the firm and the publishing giant's parent company, Paramount Global.

The deal will turn Simon & Schuster into a "standalone private company and will continue to be led by Jonathan Karp, President and CEO and Dennis Eulau, COO and CFO of Simon & Schuster," the statement continues.

The publishing industry is dominated by a handful of mega-corporations that, over the decades, have acquired smaller imprints.

Last year, the Department of Justice blocked Penguin Random House from acquiring Simon & Schuster for $2.2 billion.

"The proposed merger would have reduced competition, decreased author compensation, diminished the breadth, depth, and diversity of our stories and ideas, and ultimately impoverished our democracy," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division said in a statement at the time.