A chapter ends: Penguin merger with Simon & Schuster stalled

The win in the book publisher case comes after DoJ's antitrust lawyers lost three challenges in a row, though some of those cases are now being appealed

Penguin Random House’s $2.18 billion acquisition of rival book publisher Simon & Schuster was blocked by a federal judge who found the merger would lessen competition. 

Judge Florence Y Pan ruled in favor of the Justice Department, which sued last year arguing the tie-up would give Penguin — the largest US book publisher owned by Bertelsmann SE — too much leverage over author payouts. Simon & Schuster is the fourth largest book publisher, owned by Paramount Global.

“The court finds that the United States has shown that ‘the effect of (the proposed merger) may be substantially to lessen competition’ in the market