„No one buys books“
Sicher ist: Auseinandersetzungen mit dem US-Justizministerium verraten Details, die alle Beteiligten lieber nicht verraten hätten.
In 2022, Penguin Random House wanted to buy Simon & Schuster. The two publishing houses made up 37 percent and 11 percent of the market share, according to the filing, and combined they would have condensed the Big Five publishing houses into the Big Four. But the government intervened and brought an antitrust case against Penguin to determine whether that would create a monopoly.
The judge ultimately ruled that the merger would create a monopoly and blocked the $2.2 billion purchase. But during the trial, the head of every major publishing house and literary agency got up on the stand to speak about the publishing industry and give numbers, giving us an eye-opening account of the industry from the inside. All of the transcripts from the trial were compiled into a book called The Trial. It took me a year to read, but I’ve finally summarized my findings and pulled out all the compelling highlights.
Apples Prozess um Preisabsprachen für E-Books liegt bereits ein Jahrzehnt zurück. Eine andere Streitigkeit mit dem US-Department of Justice beginnt gerade erst.