Law360: Court Questions Penguin’s Bid Policy In Merger Challenge

Expert witness and Yale University professor Edward Snyder took the stand for a third day in the US Department of Justice’s trial challenging Penguin Random House’s merger with Simon & Schuster. M. Randall Oppenheimer of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, who represents Penguin, asked Snyder if the government’s theory is that there will be one less competitor for each book acquisition. Snyder answered that the government's model assumes that all publishers bid for every book and that agents play no role in the competitive process. “In the real world, agents pick and engage with a smaller number of publishers,” Snyder said. Penguin is represented by Oppenheimer, Daniel M. Petrocelli, Andrew Frackman, Abby F. Rudzin, Jonathan Hacker, Courtney Dyer, and Julia Schiller of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

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