8-17-23

Sheri Walsh with UPI is reporting as of August 7, 2023, that “Paramount Global has agreed to sell book publishing giant Simon & Schuster to private equity firm KKR in an all-cash deal worth $1.62 billion.” This will pend all “customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.”

Simon & Schuster will become a private company and may keep its financial information private. Unlike it is with Paramount Global today. For example, based on the recent 10-Q of Paramount Global, Simon & Schuster has had an average total net margin of 20%.

This deal represents less than what Paramount would have gotten the courts had approved if the merger with Penguin Random House, according to UPI.

The plan is to make the 1,600 employees of Simon & Schuster part of an ownership culture, but the specifics what that means were not mentioned.

KKR’s focus on three buckets of investment- “private markets, public markets and capital markets.” It’s a NYSE listed business with the symbol of KKR.

#literature