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Bertelsmann books Simon & Schuster for $2.175 billion

German media family business Bertelsmann has acquired publishing house Simon & Schuster for $2.175 billion from the US Redstone-family-owned media company ViacomCBS.

Bertelsmann, the international media, services and education company, said it was further expanding its global content businesses in the US, its second-largest market, with the deal for the publisher of Hillary Clinton, John Irving, Stephen King and Bob Woodward.

Billionaire Ray Dalio to set up family office in Singapore

Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, is the latest billionaire to open a family office in Singapore.

Dalio, 71, the US investor who founded Bridgewater Associates in his New York apartment in 1975, felt it was “high time” to build on his links to Singapore and Asia-Pacific, his spokesman said.

Vertical farming is being planted as the future of agriculture and the blossoming sector’s long-term growth could be a good fit for family investors and their patient capital.

Issues surrounding the increasing population of the world combined with water scarcity in a changing climate and the security of food and supply chains exposed by the coronavirus pandemic have all seeded minds on the possibilities of vertical farming.

While some financial commentators described the onset of the Covid pandemic in March 2020 as a so-called “Black Swan”—a one-off, rare and unpredictable event—it would appear that what we are dealing with is more of a migratory bird, a “Black Stork” if you like, whose movements recur with an element of (seasonal) regularity, at least until there is a circuit-breaker.