ViacomCBS selling book publisher Simon & Schuster
NEW YORK» Simon & Schuster, the publisher of authors such as Stephen King and Bob Woodward, is for sale.
ViacomCBS, fresh off a merger, is looking to sell its book publishing business as it tries to raise cash to pay down debt and please shareholders with dividends and stock buybacks.
Simon & Schuster is a major publishing house, releasing nearly 2,000 books per year, according to its website. Its library includes Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” and Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Its parent company has used its books to create movies and shows. But the business made up just 3% of ViacomCBS’s revenue last year.
ViacomCBS’s CEO, Bob Bakish, said the book publisher is not a “core asset” of the company because it isn’t video. But he said it’s a “marquee asset” that is “highly valuable.”
“I’ve had multiple unsolicited inbound calls” about the publisher, he said Wednesday at an investment conference.
Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy sent a letter to employees Wednesday telling them that ViacomCBS is beginning the sales process and that business will continue as usual.
Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that it would publish best-selling author Janet Evanovich’s next four books.
ViacomCBS is also looking to see what other businesses it can unload. It has already been trying to sell the longtime CBS headquarters building, Black Rock, a famous Midtown Manhattan office tower designed by modernist master Eero Saarinen.
Bakish said several potential buyers are interested and expects a sale to close this year.
ViacomCBS owns cable networks Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and Comedy Central, as well as broadcast network CBS and movie studio Paramount. It’s trying to navigate consumers’ shift from watching live TV on a television set to streaming shows and movies on the internet. It’s bulking up an existing streaming service — CBS All Access — and it will also continue supplying rivals with its library of shows and movies, like making SpongeBob spinoffs for Netflix.