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US: Education group urges DOJ to block textbook merger

By  |  August 15, 2019

An education group seeking to increase access to college textbooks and research materials on Wednesday, August 14, asked the US government to block the proposed merger of textbook publishers McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage Learning.

The proposed merger “will significantly decrease competition in a market already rife with anti-consumer behavior,” the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) wrote in a filing with the Justice Department’s Antitrust division.

The merger announced in Maybetween Cengage and McGraw-Hill, which is owned by Apollo Global Management, would reduce the number of major textbook publishers to three from four. Publishers Pearson and Wiley, hold an estimated 40% and 7% of the market, respectively, sources close to the companies told Reuters.

SPARC advocates the open sharing of research and educational material. Its members include colleges and universities from around the United States, such as Harvard University, Iowa State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to its website.

Full Content: Reuters

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