Antitrust regulators push back against Big Books amid antitrust scrutiny

Hardcover kind of day… The Justice Department is eyeing yet another antitrust crackdown. Yesterday the DOJ filed to block publisher Penguin Random House from buying rival Simon & Schuster from ViacomCBS, a $2.2B deal announced last year.

• Regulators argued the combined company’s 27% market share would give it too much influence over which books are published and how much authors are paid. Penguin is the world’s largest publisher.
• Both publishers insisted the industry is competitive, thanks to publishers of all sizes and “newer entrants like Amazon” (yes, the world’s biggest bookseller is also expanding its publishing biz). They plan to appeal the decision.

Trust-bustin’s back… In July, Biden warned businesses across healthcare, tech, agriculture, and banking of plans to put an end to anticompetitive practices. But since then enforcement has been uneven. The DOJ blocked American Airlines and JetBlue from merging to form an airline with a 24% market share, but other mergers have sailed through:

• Eat up: The DOJ allowed UberEats to gobble up rival Postmates in a $2.6B deal that gave the company a 37% food-delivery market share.
• Sweet talk: The DOJ also signed off on a $26B merger between T-Mobile and Sprint that gave the biz an estimated 29% market share.
• Plug in: The DOJ has allowed lots of Big Tech mergers and acquisitions. Most notably: Facebook and Instagram.