Salesforce co-founder buys Time magazine for $190 million in cash
Time magazine is being sold by Meredith Corporation to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife. Meredith announced that it was selling Time magazine for $190 million in cash to Benioff, one of four co-founders of Salesforce, a cloud computing pioneer. Meredith had completed the purchase of Time along with other publications of Time Inc earlier this year. Here's more.
Benioffs wouldn't be involved in journalistic decisions at Time
The Benioffs are purchasing Time personally, and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Benioff is Chairman, Co-CEO, and Co-founder. The announcement by Meredith said that the Benioffs would not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions at Time. Those decisions at the magazine will continue to be made by Time's current executive leadership team, the announcement said.
Meredith had put four Time Inc publications up for sale
"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. "For over 90 years, Time has been at the forefront of the most significant events and impactful stories that shape our global conversation," Harty added. Meredith had put four Time Inc publications up for sale in March.
Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013
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. Time was started in 1923 by Yale University graduates Henry Luce and Briton Hadden.
