ViacomCBS Inc. is close to a deal to sell book publisher Simon & Schuster to German media giant Bertelsmann SE for more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that would create a publishing behemoth accounting for about a third or all books sold in the U.S.
The transaction would put the publishers of some of the world’s bestselling authors including Stephen King, Bob Woodward, Dan Brown and John Grisham under the same corporate umbrella. Bertelsmann SE’s Penguin Random House already is the U.S.’s…
