Bertelsmann to acquire Simon & Schuster for more than $2 billion - source (updated)

RTL SA

25/11/2020 11:45

(Adds strategy context)
    BERLIN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - German media group Bertelsmann
 BTGGg.F  will acquire U.S. publisher Simon & Schuster from
ViacomCBS  VIACA.O  for more than $2 billion, a source with
direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
    Bertelsmann, owner of Penguin Random House, outbid Rupert
Murdoch's News Corp  NWSA.O  for the publisher of authors Dan
Brown, Hillary Clinton and Stephen King that Viacom put up for
sale earlier this year.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2IA3RR
    Founded in 1835 as a publisher of theological texts,
Bertelsmann is today a private media conglomerate that spans
magazine, educational and music publishing and controls European
TV group RTL  RRTL.DE .
    CEO Thomas Rabe is restructuring the group to reduce its
exposure to declining areas such as printing, has merged its
Arvato CRM customer services unit and made a string of smaller
technology bets. 
    The lack of its own public equity that can be deployed as an
acquisition 'currency' has constrained Bertelsmann's ability to
do large deals, with the Simon & Schuster acquisition its
biggest of recent years.
    A Bertelsmann spokesman declined to comment.

 (Reporting by Klaus Lauer and Douglas Busvine; editing by
Sabine Wollrab, Thomas Seythal and Louise Heavens)
 ((douglas.busvine@tr.com; +49 30 220 133 562;))