Salesforce founder buys Time magazine

WASHINGTON: MEREDITH SAID THAT THE BENIOFFS WOULD BE HANDSOFF OWNERS AND MADE IT CLEAR THAT THE DEAL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SALESFORCE.

Time Magazine is being sold by Meredith Corp to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife, it has been announced.

Meredith announced on Sunday 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. The Benioffs are purchasing Time personally, and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Benioff is chairman and 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 will continue to be made by Time’s current executive leadership team, the announcement said.

“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 in a statement. “For over 90 years, Time has been at the forefront of the most significant events and impactful stories that shape our global conversation.”

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. AP