Time Magazine is being sold by Meredith Corp. to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the iconic news magazine is being sold for $190 million to Benioff, one of four co-founders of Salesforce, a cloud computing pioneer.
The sale is occurring nearly eight months after Meredith Corp. completed its purchase of Time Inc.
Meredith, the publisher of such magazines as People and Better Homes & Gardens, had put four Time Inc. publications up for sale in March. Negotiations for the sale of the three other publications — Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated — are continuing.
The prospective sale is expected to close within 30 days. In an interview with the Journal, Benioff said he and his wife were investing “in a company with tremendous impact on the world, one that is also an incredibly strong business. That’s what we’re looking for when we invest as a family.”
The purchase of Time by Benioff continues a trend of acquisitions of old-line media institutions by wealthy tech giants. The Washington Post was purchased by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013 for $250 million.
Time, like other magazines, has struggled with continued declines in print advertising and newsstand sales.
{{/usCountry}}Time, like other magazines, has struggled with continued declines in print advertising and newsstand sales.
{{/usCountry}}Time, started by Yale University graduates Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, first went on sale in March 1923. The two had first worked together on the Yale Daily News.