DOJ Must Stop Bertelsmann’s Plan to Buy Simon & Schuster

The deal would concentrate too much power over American authors and readers in the hands of a single corporation

WASHINGTON – The media conglomerate ViacomCBS this morning announced plans to sell the Simon & Schuster book publisher to Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German publishing conglomerate Bertelsmann, for $2.175 billion.

In response, Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn issued the following statement:

“Bertelsmann’s plan to take control of Simon & Schuster poses multiple dangers to American democracy and to the interests of America’s authors and readers. By bringing three of the big six publishers under one roof, the deal will concentrate vastly too much power over the U.S. book market in the hands of a single, foreign-owned corporation. The deal will make it harder for authors and editors to attract the support they need to research, write, and prepare the sorts of books Americans need to address the many serious political and economic crises we now face. It will also threaten the ability of independent booksellers – who are already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and other pressures – to stay in business.

“The Open Markets Institute calls on the Justice Department to challenge this deal and to make clear that no further consolidation of power will be allowed in America’s book publishing industry, which is already too concentrated. Open Markets also calls on the Justice Department to 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, as all the major publishers have made repeatedly clear in recent years. In doing so, the Justice Department would build on its important decision last year to block the proposed merger of book printers Quad Graphics and LSC, which threatened to create a chokepoint in the supply of printing services in America.”

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