On Oct. 31, the Department of Justice antitrust division landed a major victory when a federal judge blocked Penguin Random House’s $2.175 billion bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global. After legal wrangling in a trial closely monitored by Hollywood, U.S. District Judge Florence Pan found that combining two of the world’s largest book publishers would hurt competition for best-selling books. “The government has presented a compelling case that predicts substantial harm to competition as a result of the proposed merger,” Pan wrote. “The post-merger concentration of the relevant market would be concerningly high: The merged entity would have a 49% market share, more than twice that of its closest competitor.”

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Meanwhile, renewed DOJ attention on the 2010 merger approval of Ticketmaster and Live Nation — which has seen high-profile ticket snafus for acts like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen — is amplifying calls from activist groups who have been calling for an unwinding of the deal. “Ticketmaster’s market power over live events is ripping off sports and music fans and undermining the vibrancy and independence of the music industry,” Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, told THR in October. Live Nation, in a statement on its site on Friday, replied: “No serious argument can be made that Ticketmaster has the kind of market position in secondary ticketing that supports antitrust claims.”

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