In agreement with the Justice Department, a federal judge has denied Penguin Random House’s request to acquire Simon & Schuster. The judge reasoned that combining the two largest publishers in the globe might reduce competitiveness for top-selling books. The decision broke with years of tradition under Democratic and Republican leadership and supported the Biden administration’s stricter stance on planned mergers.
Penguin Random House swiftly denounced the decision as an unfortunate setback for readers and authors. The publisher announced Monday that it would attempt to speed the appeal process. The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division’s Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter hailed the ruling, stating in a remark that this safeguards crucial competitiveness for publications and is a success for writers, readers, and the free interchange of thoughts.
Pan’s Decision
Pan’s decision was unexpected because she had supported the Justice Department’s argument throughout most of the three-week trial in August. The argument was that Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster for $2.2 billion might harm a crucial cultural sector.
However, it was still a sharp break from recent history, both in the literary sphere and beyond. Even after Random House and Penguin combined to become the largest publishing company in the world in 2013, the publishing sector has been consolidating for years with no interference from the federal government.
No mention of overall market share or anticipated customer price increases was made in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Penguin Random House. Instead, the DOJ asserted that the new corporation would completely monopolize the market for commercial novels—those with author advances of $250,000 or more—and that; as a result, advances would be smaller and fewer books would be released.
