At Random: The business of books and the merger that wasn’t

If you want to dig into the details, The Trial by Publisher's Lunch has the (edited) trial transcripts.

https://shop.publishersmarketplace.com/

I was surprised by how readable it is, but I guess I shouldn't be. The judge, of course, is not a publishing expert. So much of what you have in this case is witnesses explaining, more or less from first principles, what the publishing business is and how it works. Except the witnesses are CEOs of the Big Five publishers, and similar level people. And (except in a few cases) I was surprised to find the testimony is refreshingly direct, for an industry that is often mired in ambiguity.

Pretty interesting. And good to see at least one merger that was blocked. It is pretty obvious that if you have one party end up with over 50% of the market you would have a reduction of competition.

It's only a long article if you do more than skim it.