: Paramount’s Simon & Schuster, private-equity KKR in ‘advanced talks’ for $1.65 billion deal: WSJ

Private-equity firm KKR & Co. Inc. is in “advanced talks” to buy Simon & Schuster for about $1.65 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation. The sale would end Paramount Global’s PARA yearslong effort to sell the publishing company, founded in 1924. Paramount put Simon & Schuster on sale for a second time this year after a federal judge last year blocked an earlier sale to Penguin Random House. Shares of Paramount rose 0.7% in the after-hours session after ending the regular trading day down 3%.

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