Two of the biggest publishers will be merging under one roof.
ViacomCBS agreed to sell Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media giant Bertelsmann, for $2.175 billion in cash, the network announced Wednesday. The deal, which was first reported by the New York Times, is not expected to close until next year, and it will be subject to regulatory approval.
There are clauses in the agreement that will protect ViacomCBS if the sale is squashed by authorities through antitrust concerns.
Jonathan Karp, the president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, addressed the sale in a memo to staffers, according to CNN.
“From these transformations we have adjusted to new management, welcomed other companies into our fold, and always emerged stronger, with an enduring commitment to excellence in book publishing,” he wrote. “When we join Penguin Random House after closing, we can look forward to benefiting from exciting new relationships and opportunities that will enhance our ability to provide authors with the best possible publication they can receive.”
He and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Eulau will stay in their positions as the unit will continue to run as a separate publishing company.
Simon & Schuster is the third-biggest publishing house in the United States.
The company has published a number of tell-all books about President Trump and those around him this year. It published veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s book Rage, Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough, John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady, while Penguin Random House, the largest publishing house in the country, just released former President Barack Obama’s new memoir, A Promised Land.
