Paramount Terminates Deal To Sell Simon & Shuster to Bertelsmann

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Paramount collects $200 million termination fee

Paramount Global West Coast headquarters
(Image credit: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Paramount Global announced that it terminated its agreement to sell its Simon & Schuster publishing business to a subsidiary of Bertelsmann for $2.2 billion.

The deal, reached in November 2020, ran into regulatory problems, with the Department of Justice filing suit to block the sale. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the Justice Department on October 31, saying the sale would lessen competition for publishing right to books expected to be best sellers.

According to terms of the deal, Paramount will receive a $200 million termination fee from Bertelsmann.

Paramount said that Simon & Schuster remains a non-core asset, which means the company will likely look to find another way to dispose of it, either through a sale or spinoff. ■

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.