Penguin Random House bought Simon & Schuster

[Raven]

PRH owner Bertelsmann to buy Simon & Schuster in $2bn deal
So, does this mean Penguin will have the rights to all of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series?

[tomswift2002]

Technically Simon & Schuster has all the rights, and they've used them in the past.  Really, the only thing Simon & Schuster does not have are the North American rights to the 59 books originally published by Grosset & Dunlap.  Otherwise, even to change the cover art, as G&D did a few years ago, Simon & Schuster had to approve it. 

But since the Stratemeyer Syndicate days, the international rights outside the US & Canada were always held by the Stratemeyer Syndicate/Simon & Schuster.

[MacGyver]

Interesting. Good to know but I don't know what change that might mean for The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, if any.

[tomswift2002]

Really it means that one parent company now owns both.  However, it shouldn't affect any contracts that S&S has with other companies.  So the 1970's "Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries" shouldn't be disappearing from DVD or streaming because Universal lost the license to the characters because of this.