{"id":37421,"date":"2022-11-08T18:54:38","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T01:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-judge-lays-out-case-for-blocking-merger-of-publishing-giants-merger\/"},"modified":"2022-11-09T01:54:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T01:54:38","slug":"u-s-judge-lays-out-case-for-blocking-merger-of-publishing-giants-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-judge-lays-out-case-for-blocking-merger-of-publishing-giants-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. judge lays out case for blocking merger of publishing giants merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A federal judge has laid out a data-laden case for why she blocked Penguin Random House\u2019s proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster. (Jenny Kane\/Associated Press file photo)<\/span>Jenny Kane<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 A federal judge has laid out a data-laden case for why she blocked Penguin Random House\u2019s proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster, handing a victory to the Biden Justice Department in its contention that combining two of the world\u2019s biggest publishers would hurt competition for top-selling books.<\/p>\n

In her ruling filed Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Florence Pan also waved off as not relevant the publishers\u2019 assertion that Penguin Random House would be the best \u201chome\u201d for Simon & Schuster and that other buyers \u2013 notably private equity firms \u2013 could destroy it. That argument isn\u2019t relevant to the case and her decision, Pan wrote, which turns only on the issue of how the merger would affect competition.<\/p>\n

Pan announced her ruling in a brief statement last week, keeping the bulk of it under seal because of confidentiality issues. The full ruling issued this week delves into the data of publishing-market dynamics, replete with charts and graphs. Some company-related material is redacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has presented a compelling case that predicts substantial harm to competition as a result of the proposed merger,\u201d Pan wrote. \u201cThe post-merger concentration of the relevant market would be concerningly high: The merged entity would have a 49% market share, more than twice that of its closest competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The merger \u201cis likely to substantially lessen competition in the market for the publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books,\u201d Pan wrote.<\/p>\n

Penguin Random House, owned by German conglomerate Bertelsmann, is the biggest book publisher in the U.S., as Pan laid out in her ruling. She noted that Simon & Schuster, whose parent is New York-based media giant Paramount Global, is the third-largest U.S. publisher.<\/p>\n

Penguin Random House last week called the ruling \u201can unfortunate setback for readers and authors\u201d and said it will request an expedited appeal in federal court.<\/p>\n

Pan\u2019s ruling was a victory for the Biden administration\u2019s tougher approach to proposed mergers, a break from decades of precedent under Democratic and Republican leadership.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department declined further comment Tuesday on Pan\u2019s decision. Simon & Schuster and Paramount declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Pan\u2019s ruling was not surprising. Through much of the three-week non-jury federal trial in August, she had indicated agreement with the Justice Department\u2019s contention that Penguin Random House\u2019s plan to buy Simon & Schuster for $2.2 billion might damage a vital cultural industry.<\/p>\n

But it was still a dramatic departure from recent history in the book world and beyond. The publishing industry has been consolidating for years with little interference from the government, even when Random House and Penguin merged in 2013 and formed what was then the biggest publishing house in memory. The joining of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster would have created a company far exceeding any rival.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBig Five\u201d companies __ the others are Hachette, Macmillan and HarperCollins \u2014 publish 91% of anticipated top-selling books, Pan noted in her ruling.<\/p>\n

In her 80-page opinion, Pan conjured literary history, opening with a nod to John Steinbeck \u2014 the \u201cGrapes of Wrath\u201d author whose publisher was Viking Press, now owned by Penguin Random House.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Steinbeck famously said, \u2018I guess there are never enough books,'\u201d Pan wrote. \u201cHe apparently meant that in the figurative sense, as a comment on the power of books to educate, to enrich and to explore. But today, his statement also rings true in the economic sense: The retail market for books in the United States was over $11.5 billion in 2019 and has only continued to expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to read. And book publishers have the enormous power and responsibility to decide which books \u2014 and therefore which ideas and stories \u2014 will be made broadly available to the public,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

merger would hurt competition, judge says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[639,431,500],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-book","tag-business-general","tag-retail"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37421"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}