PRH owner Bertelsmann to buy Simon & Schuster in $2bn deal (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/25/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?
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.
Interesting. Good to know but I don't know what change that might mean for The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, if any.
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.