U.S. Sues to Block Penguin Deal for Simon & Schuster (2)

U.S. antitrust officials sued to block Penguin Random House’s deal to buy Simon & Schuster, saying the tie-up would give Penguin too much control over book publishing and how much authors are paid.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, the Justice Department argued the deal would eliminate the competition between No. 1 Penguin, owned by Bertelsmann SE, and No. 4 Simon & Schuster, owned by ViacomCBS Inc., for authors’ publishing rights.

“If the world’s largest book publisher is permitted to acquire one of its biggest rivals, it will have unprecedented control over this important ...