Dohle assures agents of competitive bidding between PRH, S&S
Penguin Random House (PRH) CEO Markus Dohle has told literary agents in a Zoom chat that, following the acquisition of Simon & Schuster (S&S), editors at PRH and S&S will be free to bid on the same titles, reports Publishers Weekly.
Dohle emphasised that editors from both publishers will be able to bid against each other even if they are the only two players left in the auction, with the CEO to weigh in on auctions that reach a certain monetary threshold. Dohle’s comments follow concerns from agents and authors that PRH’s proposed acquisition of S&S will leave fewer major publishers able to acquire big-ticket titles.
Dohle added that the bidding process is part of a strategy to keep PRH and S&S as two distinct imprints. While he expects that distributing S&S titles through PRH’s supply chain will lead to higher sales of S&S titles, Dohle said his ‘most ambitious goal post-merger is to keep investing on the creative side of the business’, including finding the ‘perfect match’ for a book and author with a PRH or S&S editor.
PRH’s proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster, which received antitrust clearance from the UK Competition & Markets Authority in May, is still undergoing regulatory review in the US.
Category: International news