Penguin Random House, already the country’s largest trade publisher, had offered $2.2 billion in 2020 for Simon & Schuster, a deal that would have created a dominant force in the book market. It has a long history of releasing political books, from Hillary Clinton’s memoir “Living History” to Woodward’s Donald Trump book “Fear,” and also works with such acclaimed fiction writers as King, Jennifer Egan and Don DeLillo. Simon & Schuster, founded nearly a century ago, publishes such best-selling authors as Colleen Hoover, Stephen King and Bob Woodward. “The combination of initial interest and strong operating performance of the business over the last several years, gives us confidence in our ability to maximize the value of this asset for our shareholders.” “We have restarted the sale process for Simon & Schuster and we see a path to potentially closing a transaction this year,” she said. During an earnings report call Thursday morning, Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra noted that the company was committed to “divesting non-core assets.”

Paramount has said that Simon & Schuster does not fit “strategically” because it’s not video-based. “It should come as no surprise that there are many interested parties, a reflection of the fact that we are an even more successful and more profitable company than when the sale process first began,” Karp wrote. Karp noted in the letter that Simon & Schuster is enjoying a strong 2023 so far, with double-digit domestic revenue growth over the first three months compared with the same time period last year. “I can now report that, as expected, Paramount has resumed the process of selling Simon & Schuster,” Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp wrote in a staff memo shared Thursday with The Associated Press.

Months after a federal judge halted Penguin Random House’s plan to purchase its longtime rival, Simon & Schuster’s CEO and parent company, Paramount Global, have confirmed that the publisher is back on the market, with a sale possible by the end of the year. NEW YORK (AP) - Simon & Schuster is again up for sale. Free Press 101: How we practice journalism.

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