, Columnist
Trending Now With Buyers: Time Inc.
The magazine publisher is in a better negotiating position as bids come due.
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In the midst of a declining print industry, magazine publisher Time Inc. still managed to draw a competitive bidding process. Its latest financial results help show why.
The $1.9 billion company, which owns Time magazine, People and Sports Illustrated, has asked its five interested suitors to submit acquisition offers by next week, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Among them is peer Meredith Corp. -- with which Time had a futile fling a few years ago -- and an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., the folks that effectively put Time in play late last year when it was reported that they had made an unsuccessful bid. It was clear then that after years of speculation, the takeover chatter wasn't going to just dissipate like in the past.