Penguin deal scares Stephen King

THE horror author Stephen King is to testify against a merger of two of the world’s biggest publishers in a legal battle to determine whether the $2.2bn (£1.6bn) takeover of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House can go ahead.

Mr King, author of 64 novels including The Shining and Carrie, will speak on behalf of the US federal government, which claims that the takeover is anti-competitive and would lead to writers earning smaller advances.

The German media group Bertelsmann – the owner of Penguin – trumped Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2020 when it tabled the winning bid for Simon & Schuster, which has a stable that includes Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The US Department of Justice wants to block the takeover on the grounds that authors and readers would “pay the price” in lower advances and fewer books if Penguin was allowed to gain “unprecedented control” over the publishing industry.

The legal tussle is perceived as one of the first steps in a competition crackdown by President Joe Biden.

If it goes through the deal would reinforce Penguin’s position as one of the world’s biggest book publishers.