Business Wire | Nov 25, 2020 10:16AM EST

Statement of Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, Regarding the Sale of Simon & Schuster to Bertelsmann

Nov. 25, 2020

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 25, 2020--News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson has commented on ViacomCBS's announcement regarding the sale of Simon & Schuster to Bertelsmann:

"There is clearly no market logic to a bid of that size - only anti-market logic. Bertelsmann is not just buying a book publisher, but buying market dominance as a book behemoth. Distributors, retailers, authors and readers would be paying for this proposed deal for a very long time to come. This literary leviathan would have 70 percent of the US Literary and General Fiction market. There will certainly be legal books written about this deal, though I wonder if Bertelsmann would publish them."

About News Corp

News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS)(NASDAQ:NWSA)(ASX:NWS)(ASX:NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: digital real estate services, subscription video services in Australia, news and information services and book publishing. Headquartered in New York, News Corp operates primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and its content and other products and services are distributed and consumed worldwide. More information is available at: http://www.newscorp.com.

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CONTACT: News Corp Investor Relations Michael Florin 212-416-3363 mflorin@newscorp.com

CONTACT: News Corp Corporate Communications Jim Kennedy 212-416-4064 jkennedy@newscorp.com