Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity involving book publishers is a continuing feature of the U.S. commercial publishing landscape. Over the last 6 years, from the beginning of 2014 through the end of 2019, there were 120 control transactions involving U.S. trade publishers of all sizes: on average, twenty transactions annually. This activity has proceeded subject to random annual variation uncorrelated to industry performance or to macroeconomic factors; in the last 2 years activity has accelerated, with 27 completed transactions in 2019. Historically, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, trade publishing M&A activity stalled from the valuations achieved in 2006–2007, even as activity remained relatively steady. We anticipate that in the wake of the pandemic M&A activity will gradually increase as publishers seek stronger partners and increased scale. In the first 5 months of 2020, eight transactions were announced or completed, and ViacomCBS set the stage for a major transaction by announcing its intention to divest Simon & Schuster.

中文翻译：

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美国贸易图书出版商并购趋势

涉及图书出版商的并购 (M&A) 活动是美国商业出版领域的一个持续特征。在过去的 6 年中，从 2014 年初到 2019 年底，有 120 笔控制权交易涉及各种规模的美国贸易出版商：平均每年有 20 笔交易。该活动的进行受到与行业表现或宏观经济因素无关的随机年度变化的影响；在过去 2 年中，活动加速，2019 年完成了 27 笔交易。 从历史上看，在 2008 年金融危机之后，贸易出版并购活动从 2006-2007 年实现的估值中停滞不前，即使活动保持相对稳定。我们预计，在大流行之后，并购 随着出版商寻求更强大的合作伙伴和扩大规模，活动将逐渐增加。2020 年前 5 个月，宣布或完成了 8 笔交易，维亚康姆哥伦比亚广播公司宣布有意剥离 Simon & Schuster，为重大交易奠定了基础。