And then there were 4?

[Doug Pardee]

On the heels of the deal to combine Random House and Penguin, News Corp has announced that it is in negotiations to buy Simon & Schuster from CBS to combine with its own HarperCollins.

According to a Wall Street Journal graphic, Penguin Random House would account for about 28% of US trade book sales, while HarperCollins/Simon & Schuster would account for about 21%. Applying some simple arithmetic skills, we find that the two behemoths would control just about 1/2 of the US trade book market between them.

[Hachette accounts for 11%, and apparently Macmillan is too small to bother being broken out from "others".]