Time Inc. sold in $2.8B deal

NEW YORK » Time Inc., the steward of some of the country’s most circulated and storied magazine brands, will be sold to the lifestyle-magazine publisher Meredith Corp., the companies announced Sunday.

Meredith will pay $18.50 per share in the all-cash deal for a company that counts such titles as Time, Sports Illustrated and People in its portfolio, putting the price tag at about $1.85 billion. Of that sum, the conservative activists Charles and David Koch will contribute $650 million via their private-equity firm Koch Equity Development, putting an iconic magazine company in the hands of some of the country’s biggest Republican donors.

Adding Time’s debt would raise the total value of the deal to about $2.8 billion.

The deal marks the latest move in the consolidation-minded magazine business, whose owners are seeking scale as they attempt to combat diminished print readership and advertisers. Time Inc. recently reported a quarterly revenue drop of 9 percent as a result of these losses.

Meredith, based in Des Moines, owns Shape, Parents and other mass-market titles. Its most popular magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, has a circulation of 7.7 million, the fourth-highest for a magazine in the United States, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. Time is 12th, with 3.4 million.

“We are creating a premiere media company serving nearly 200 million American consumers across industry-leading digital, television, print, video, mobile and social platforms positioned for growth,” Meredith chief executive Stephen Lacy said in a statement announcing the deal. He also noted savings as a result of streamlined operations.

Lacy did not indicate how aggressively Meredith will move to reconcile the legacy-driven business of its core brands.