Simon & Schuster for sale

[Brian G Turner]

The newly merged ViacomCBS is selling Simon & Schuster as they want to focus on video, and selling the publisher will bring some much needed cash into the company:

Simon & Schuster Is Up for Sale, ViacomCBS CEO Says

 

[ctg]

We can assume that the Five becomes Four and the traditional publishing market gets tighter. Does that mean that we writers should do the same time as the music artists and start hiding under labels?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

We can assume that the Five becomes Four and the traditional publishing market gets tighter. Does that mean that we writers should do the same time as the music artists and start hiding under labels?

I doubt it. I expect it to sell as a going concern. Big publishers are not loss making in any sense.

 

[ctg]

. Big publishers are not loss making in any sense.

Ah, so it's about the old greed. I get it.

 

[Finch]

I believe out of the big five S & S is ranked fiftieth. It has some big name writers and best sellers are still profitable . But it has struggled in a shrinking market and is declining as a business. So , I think it is a getting out wile the goings good . Buying another publisher is almost the only safe way to expand, it will will most likely be bought by another publisher .

 

[Parson]

I don't know enough about the specifics here to be sure, but if this follows the normal kind of merger aftermath it follows this pattern. Acquire a business sell off the least profitable businesses or the businesses with the least up side to reduce your debt and increase the profit margin. It is capitalism pure and simple --- well maybe not so pure. Usually the people who get hurt are the little guys. I'm always reminded of case of the sewing pattern manufacturer, Simplicity Patterns. For a number of years the company employed a work force numbering a few hundred and paid them well. The company was profitable, but they owned some other things property as well. A venture capitalist firm bought them out. Sold the business piecemeal and made a tidy profit (tens of millions IRC). But now the company which owned the pattern business found that the profits of that business were too small, cut the work force, and eventually moved the work out of the USA. Everyone did well, but the common people.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect anything good to come of this.