Major Investor Group Withdraws Time Inc Bid

An investor group led by former Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. has withdrawn its bid to acquire Time Inc. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news Wednesday.

The group also included media executives Ynon Kreiz and Len Blavatnik. Reuters reports the group found the Time Inc. asking price too high.

Late last year, the group offered an $18 per share bid, which was rejected by Time Inc.’s board. The takeover bid valued the company at nearly $1.8 billion.

Time Inc., which publishes Time, Sports Illustrated and People magazine, asked potential buyers to submit acquisition offers by this week, after receiving interest from Meredith and Bronfman.

Time Inc. hired Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley to field offers after rejecting Bronfman's bid.

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There are reportedly at least three other companies that have expressed interesting in buying America’s largest magazine publisher. Once the offers are in, the board will decide whether to go forward with a sale, likely depending on how the suitors value the company.

It is also possible the board will decide to sell individual magazine titles, rather than the entire Time Inc. business, sources told Bloomberg.

Time Inc. was approached by Meredith Corp. about a possible merger in January. A source told Publishers Daily at the time that Time Inc. felt no pressure to look for buyers.

Meredith originally proposed a merger with Time Inc. back in 2013, when Time was preparing to separate from parent company Time Warner. Nothing came of the proposal.

At least one of the other three bidders is a publicly traded company, according to one of Bloomberg’s sources.

Time Inc. declined to comment.

Despite a 10% dip in print advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016, Time Inc.'s total ad revenue in 2016 increased 3% -- or $57 million -- to $1.71 billion compared to the previous year.

2 comments about "Major Investor Group Withdraws Time Inc Bid".
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  1. Henry Blaufox from Dragon360, March 9, 2017 at 12:08 p.m.

    Is the erevnue increasde purely organin YoY applied to the publishing properties, or is some due to Viant, acquired along the way?

  2. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, March 9, 2017 at 8:58 p.m.

    A gift.

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