, Columnist
Koch-ing Up a New Bid for Time Inc.
Money certainly talks when your stock is losing value by the day and the future is so uncertain.
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And there it is. Time Inc. has resisted a takeover so long that we've now entered the Faustian stage, where a billionaire -- or rather pair of them -- swoops in carrying all the money a struggling publisher could dream of.
It's reported that brothers Charles and David Koch -- the deep-pocketed benefactors of a highly influential network pushing conservative causes behind the scenes of the U.S. political system -- have tentatively agreed to help Meredith Corp. acquire Time, the publisher of the namesake news magazine, among other titles. Word is the Koch brothers would provide an equity injection of more than $500 million. Time's market value is $1.6 billion, compared with Meredith's $2.6 billion.