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Gütersloh (dpa) - With the purchase of the US publisher Simon & Schuster with successful authors like Stephen King, the Bertelsmann Group is expanding its position on the international book market.
The group's Penguin Random House publishing group is taking over the book publisher from the media company ViacomCBS for the equivalent of 1.83 billion euros (2.175 billion US dollars), as the media, services and education group announced on Wednesday in Gütersloh.
In addition to Stephen King, the New York-based publishing house also publishes works by Hillary Clinton and John Irving, among others.
Simon & Schuster employs around 1,500 people worldwide, and sales in 2019 were reportedly 814 million US dollars (end of 2019 around 725.8 million euros).
85 percent of the publisher's sales come from the United States.
The deal is still subject to regulatory approvals.
Bertelsmann expects the deal to be completed in the course of next year.
Simon & Schuster is supposed to slip under the roof of Penguin Random House, but form a separate publishing unit there.
Personnel changes at the top management are not planned.
Bertelsmann wants to pay the purchase price in cash from liquid funds.
With the acquisition, Bertelsmann is strengthening its presence in its second largest market, the USA, and its most important foreign market.
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Since spring, the group, which also includes RTL Group and magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr as well as service provider Arvato, has been the sole owner of Penguin Random House in New York as the world's largest consumer publisher.
Bertelsmann's publishing history goes back to the 19th century.
Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe continues to see growth opportunities in the global book market in the USA, but also in China, India and Brazil.
As far as the segments are concerned, there is great growth in children's and young people's books.
But the group also sees potential in audio books.