Paramount Agrees To Sell Simon and Schuster To KKR (nytimes.com) 17
Paramount said on Monday it had reached a deal to sell Simon and Schuster, one of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses in the United States, to the private-equity firm KKR, in a major changing of the guard in the books business. From a report: The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of the cultural touchstone behind authors like Stephen King and Bob Woodward in the hands of a financial buyer with an expanding presence in the publishing industry. While private equity investors have had a significant footprint in the book business --different firms have owned literary agencies, publishing houses and the retailer Barnes & Noble -- the acquisition of one of the largest publishers in the country vastly increases the hold of financial interests in the business.
[...] Since Simon & Schuster was first put up for sale in 2020, many in the publishing industry have fretted over where the company might land. A sale to another publisher would mean the new management would understand the book business. But it would also mean further consolidation in the industry, with potentially fewer players available to bid on big books, and the chance of layoffs as redundant jobs were eliminated. It could also raise regulatory scrutiny: Paramount's first attempt to sell Simon & Schuster, to Penguin Random House in 2020, was derailed by government antitrust concerns.
[...] Since Simon & Schuster was first put up for sale in 2020, many in the publishing industry have fretted over where the company might land. A sale to another publisher would mean the new management would understand the book business. But it would also mean further consolidation in the industry, with potentially fewer players available to bid on big books, and the chance of layoffs as redundant jobs were eliminated. It could also raise regulatory scrutiny: Paramount's first attempt to sell Simon & Schuster, to Penguin Random House in 2020, was derailed by government antitrust concerns.
Steven King is going to have a clown. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Evil Private Equity is now his publisher. He might have to leave them like he left twitter, x. Wait he screams about leaving and never does, like some sort of evil clown.
So he's just like that clown Rush Limbaugh who said he'd leave the country [cbsnews.com] if Obama's healthcare bill was passed. But didn't.
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So he's just like that clown Rush Limbaugh who said he'd leave the country [cbsnews.com] if Obama's healthcare bill was passed. But didn't.
Yes, he did. He left on February 17, 2021.
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The plot resolution to his book _IT_ was the gangbang of an eleven-year old.
I knew a woman who was abused as a kid and she stopped by a bar after work for a few beers while she read (it was the 80's...) and when she got to that part she threw the hardcover across the room and was nearly inconsolate (but for a kind waitress).
The creepy clown was behind the typewriter.
See you later..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:See you later..... (Score:4, Informative)
It's the private equity way. Buy out the company and saddle it with the debt used to buy it out. Sell off the assets until the company is a ruined husk.
All while paying yourself millions at every step of the process.
Makes a Mafia "bust out" look humane.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/m... [forbes.com]
In the end (Score:1)
...everything flows into the Borg. Resistance is future.
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Correction: "futile". Jeez, Mondays are futile.
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That's always the cost of Empire and endless wars.
20 years, $3T, 30K American lives (including vets) all to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
Should we include the 100K/yr fentanyl deaths too due to diverted funding?
Controlling the narrative. (Score:2)
prices up (Score:2)
Prices just went up on all products, and most of the staff will no longer be employed.
Why the fretting? (Score:2)
Surely anything's better than it continuing to be owned by Paramount, no?
sensitivity readers (Score:2)
The entire book industry, except one small indie publisher, uses "sensitivity readers" to enforce woke principles in books. These services are provided by third party companies. For example, no book may contain the word "fat" in describing a person. I wonder if KKR will want to continue paying for this cost center.