U.S. files antitrust suit to stop major book publisher merger
CBSN
The Justice Department is suing to block a $2.2 billion book publishing deal that would have reshaped the industry, saying consolidation would hurt authors and, ultimately, readers.
German media giant Bertelsmann's Penguin Random House, already the largest American publisher, wants to buy New York-based Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King, Hillary Clinton and John Irving, from TV and film company ViacomCBS. (ViacomCBS is also the parent company of CBS News.)
The Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Tuesday in the first major antitrust action by the Biden administration, saying the deal would let Penguin Random House "exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work."
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