PRH owner Bertelsmann to buy Simon & Schuster in $2bn deal

German media firm, already owner of the giant Penguin Random House, says acquisition of another major publisher is ‘approvable’ within monopoly rules

German media group Bertelsmann is set to acquire publisher Simon & Schuster for $2.17bn, less than a year after it took control of Penguin Random House (PRH).

Bertelsmann outbid Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns publisher HarperCollins, in a contest for the company that is home to Dan Brown, Hillary Clinton and Stephen King. ViacomCBS put the company up for sale this year in order to refocus on its online and advertising operations.

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