A D.C. federal judge questioned an expert witness Thursday on how well Penguin Random House's promise to allow individual company imprints to bid against each other for books will work after its planned purchase of Simon & Schuster.
A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday issued a midtrial order excluding Penguin Random House's predicted cost-savings from the trial on its planned merger with Simon & Schuster, savings the publisher says would be passed on to authors in the form of higher advances.
A Yale University economist told a D.C. federal judge on Tuesday that there's plenty of competition in the publishing industry for the acquisition of new books and that author advances are not likely to fall after Penguin Random House acquires Simon & Schuster.
The head of Penguin Random House's U.S. operations told a D.C. federal judge Monday that there's real competition between the company's various imprints, in an effort to debunk the government's allegations that its planned purchase of Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global will dampen author pay.
After two weeks presiding over the government's effort to stop Penguin Random House's planned purchase of Simon & Schuster, U.S. District Judge Florence Y. Pan has shown both skepticism and frustration with arguments made by both sides of the merger fight.