Private equity firm KKR to buy Simon & Schuster
Paramount Global has sold the publisher after a national judge blocked rival Penguin Random House from purchasing Simon & Schuster.
Simon & Schuster has been sold to the private equity company KKR, months after a federal judge stopped its acquisition by rival firm Penguin Random House because of concerns that competition would contract in the book market.
The private equity giant will purchase the company for $1.62bn in cash, said Paramount Global, the parent firm of the storied book publisher.
Simon & Schuster, with the registration of authors including Stephen King, Colleen Hoover and Bob Woodward, is one of the so-called big five of New York publishing, the others having Penguin Random House, HarperCollins Publishing, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan. HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, had reportedly been interested in purchasing Simon & Schuster.
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“All of the executives at the company who met with KKR came away from those conversations impressed with the depth of KKR’s interest in our business and their commitment to helping us grow, thrive and become an even stronger company,” stated Jonathan Karp, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, in a statement.
Late in 2020, Paramount revealed the sale of the business to Penguin Random House for $2.2bn, a pact that would have made the new firm the biggest in the US.
But the Department of Justice, which under the Biden government has taken a stricter stance on unions than other recent presidencies, sued to stop the sale in 2021.
