When Houghton Mifflin (publisher of Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer) merged with Harcourt just about a year ago — resulting in the laying off of four editors and a publisher and the cutting of future lists by about 25 percent — the president of the merged group spoke of "an exciting future ahead." Today, Publishers Weekly confirms that the company is halting all acquisitions (temporarily, they insist). Spokesman Josef Blumenfeld told the trade mag, "It's a symbol of doing things smarter, it's not an indicator of the end of literature." Well, not all of literature, maybe. Suddenly, bloated Doubleday — where sixteen staffers were laid off three weeks ago — looks like a pretty solid place to be. Look for skyrocketing grad-school applications. [PW] Related: "The End" [NYM]