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KKR is in superior talks to purchase US ebook writer Simon & Schuster from Paramount for greater than $1.6bn, mentioned individuals aware of the matter, which might settle the destiny of the storied firm after years of uncertainty.
US regulators final 12 months blocked a proposed merger of Penguin Random Home and Simon & Schuster that might have created a mega-publisher within the books trade.
Paramount, which owns belongings together with the eponymous film studio and tv channels along with Simon & Schuster, has been purchasing the writer once more because it appears to deal with the streaming video enterprise.
Paramount goals to strike a deal within the coming weeks, mentioned individuals aware of the matter. Different bidders embrace Rupert Murdoch’s HarperCollins and the investor Richard Hurowitz, who’s backed by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
A value of $1.6bn could be decrease than the $2.2bn Penguin Random Home had agreed again in 2020. After the US justice division blocked that acquisition, Paramount is taking regulatory threat into consideration along with different elements equivalent to value, mentioned individuals aware of the method. PRH paid Paramount $200mn in termination charges for the collapsed deal.
Final month KKR offered its stake in audiobook writer RBmedia to non-public fairness agency HIG Capital, a deal led by Richard Sarnoff, the chair of its media funding follow. Sarnoff, who was beforehand an government at Random Home, has been concerned in KKR’s effort to purchase Simon & Schuster, alongside companion Ted Oberwager.
Have been KKR to win the bid, it will grant inventory awards to all the writer’s workers, because it did for RBmedia, mentioned an individual aware of the matter.
Simon & Schuster, dwelling to authors equivalent to Edith Wharton and F Scott Fitzgerald, is without doubt one of the prime 5 publishers within the US, a prized asset in a sector that has proven resilience to the disruption from Amazon and the pandemic.
Final 12 months, Simon & Schuster’s working revenue climbed 16 per cent to $248mn as revenues jumped 10 per cent to greater than $1.1bn. Chief government Jonathan Karp described the 12 months as “extraordinary”.
The Wall Avenue Journal first reported that KKR was in superior talks to purchase Simon & Schuster.
Paramount and KKR declined to remark.
