U.S. District Judge Blocks Merger of Publishers Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster
takyon writes:
US court blocks Penguin merger with Simon & Schuster
A US court has blocked a $2.2bn (1.9bn) merger between the world's largest book publisher Penguin Random House and its rival Simon & Schuster.
In a brief order on Monday, US District Judge Florence Pan said the deal could "substantially" lessen competition in the publishing industry.
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to stop the deal last November.
Penguin Random House was formed through the merger of two major publishers from the UK and the US in 2013.
"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 for the US publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books," Judge Pan said in her two-page order.
Court order (2 page PDF).
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.