The Big Number: $1.62 Billion

The deal, brokered this past week with Simon & Schuster’s owner, Paramount, significantly expands private equity’s presence in the literary world. Over the years, financial firms have owned literary agencies, publishing houses and the retailer Barnes & Noble.

This latest deal puts KKR in control of a major cultural touchstone and a home to authors like Stephen King and Bob Woodward.

Simon & Schuster was first put up for sale in 2020, after its parent company conducted a “strategic review” of the business.

It soon attracted the largest publisher in the United States: Penguin Random House. But the $2.18 billion deal would have reduced the number of top publishing houses to four from five. The Biden administration challenged the sale on antitrust grounds, and last year a federal judge blocked it.

KKR’s acquisition, while worth less, is likely to avoid the kind of regulatory scrutiny that comes with one publisher buying another.

But a deal with private equity could bring its own pitfalls. It could burden Simon & Schuster with debt or with leaders not as knowledgeable about book publishing. How it plays out will depend partly on how much debt KKR uses to finance the acquisition.