NEWS CORP INTERESTED IN SIMON & SCHUSTER

The News Corp. owned Wall Street Journal broke the news this afternoon that News Corp. (the corporate parents of HarperCollins) have pondered buying Simon & Schuster. Check it out: “News Corp, owner of HarperCollins Publishers, has expressed interest to CBS Corp. about acquiring its Simon & Schuster book business, according to people familiar with the talks. The people described the talks as preliminary and cautioned that a deal isn’t imminent.” At the end of October, Pearson-owned newspaper the Financial Times reported that Random House and Penguin were holding similar talks. Three days later, the companies announced a merger.