German media giant Bertelsmann's Penguin Random House, already the largest American publisher, wants to buy New York-based Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King, Hillary Clinton and John Irving, from TV and film company ViacomCBS.
The purchase of Simon & Schuster would reduce the so-called Big Five, which dominate American publishing and include HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan, to four. The government's case addresses a conventional market of five mammoth old-line publishing houses. Overshadowing it is Amazon, which created an empire and ecosystem of digital books starting back in 1995, controlling not only the bookstore but also the dominant devices for reading e-books and listening to audiobooks, and eventually some of the content.
In a statement, Penguin Random House and Simon & Simon & Schuster said they would fight the lawsuit. They say blocking the deal would harm authors.