Penguin Random House Deal for Simon & Schuster Blocked by Judge

Penguin Random House’s $2.18 billion acquisition of rival book publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. was blocked by a federal judge who found the merger would lessen competition.

Judge Florence Y. Pan ruled in favor of the Justice Department, which sued last year arguing the tie-up would give Penguin -- the largest US book publisher owned by Bertelsmann SE -- too much leverage over author payouts. Simon & Schuster is the fourth largest book publisher, owned by Paramount Global.

“The court finds that the United States has shown that ‘the effect of [the proposed merger] may be substantially to ...