Business & Tech
Des Moines' Meredith Corp. To Purchase Time Inc. For $2.8 Billion
The transaction will add iconic news, business and sports publications to Meredith's portfolio of lifestyles brands.
A media sale agreement reached late Sunday will give Des Moines-based Meredith Corp. ownership of Time Inc., which publishes iconic magazines such as Time, People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. The $2.8 billion sale includes an all-cash offer with a purchase price of $1.84 billion and debt takeover of nearly $1 billion, according to a news release from Time.
Meredith, known mainly as a lifestyles media company, owns Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle and AllRecipes. The Time portfolio of approximately 100 brands will broaden Meredith's reach into news, sports and business publications in print and digital.
Time said in its news release that the transaction — amounting to an $18.50 per share purchase price — has been approved unanimously by the Meredith and Time boards and should close in the first quarter of 2018. The company ended trading Friday at $16.90 per share.
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Reuters reported that Meredith and Time together have readership of 135 million and paid circulation of nearly 60 million. Time Inc. was part of the Time Warner Inc. group until a spinoff in 2014 made it a standalone company.
Meredith has attempted to purchase Time twice previously, but in April Time declined a sale offer. Over the summer the company again said it was seeking a buyer. Meredith, in order to acquire the company, will accept $650 million is preferred equity from Koch Equity Development, a private equity division of Koch Industries. The companies said Koch will have no influence on Meredith’s editorial decisions or business management.
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Reuters reported that Meredith's plans to eliminate overlap within the two companies could save $400 million to $500 million in its first two years. Rich Battista, president and CEO of Time Inc., will work with Meredith management during the transition but is expected to leave the company when the sale closes.
Photo: Copies of TIME Magazine are seen during TIME Celebrates FIRSTS on Sept. 12, 2017, in New York City./Ben Gabbe/Getty Images for TIME
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