Meredith Corp. has sold Time magazine to Salesforce.com chairman, co-CEO and founder Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, for $190 million in cash.
The news comes 10 months after Meredith sealed a $2.8 billion deal to acquire Time Inc. with the backing of conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. The all-cash transaction closed in the first quarter of 2018 and gave Meredith other titles including People and Better Homes & Gardens.
The sale is expected to be finalized within 30 days.
The Benioffs will not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by Time‘s current executive leadership team. They also are making their purchase of Time magazine personally and keeping it separate from Salesforce, which is a cloud computing company based in San Francisco.
“We’re pleased to have found such passionate buyers in Marc and Lynne Benioff for the Time brand,” Meredith president and CEO Tom Harty said Sunday in a statement. “For over 90 years, Time has been at the forefront of the most significant events and impactful stories that shape our global conversation. We know Time will continue to succeed and is in good hands with the Benioffs. We thank the Time team for its ongoing hard work and passionate commitment.”
Meredith also is in the process of trying to sell Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated as it aims to focus on brands serving its core female audience. The company said it expects to announce agreements for the those titles in the near future.
