From a New York Times story by Elizabeth A. Harris, Lauren Hirsch, and Benjamin Mullin headlined “Paramount Agrees to Sell Simon & Schuster to KKR, a Private Equity Firm”:

Paramount said on Monday it had reached a deal to sell Simon & Schuster, one of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses in the United States, to the private-equity firm KKR, in a major changing of the guard in the books business.

The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of the cultural touchstone behind authors like Stephen King and Bob Woodward in the hands of a financial buyer with an expanding presence in the publishing industry.