(Image Source: CNNMoney)
BY ELISA LOPEZ AGUADO
ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA
A new time for Time Warner.
The company is reportedly in talks to sell
most of its magazine titles to Meredith Corporation
in hopes of moving ahead from its 40 percent
decrease in sales over the past decade.
A deal would result in:
- Time Warner mainly remaining a film and
television company, where it’s seeing growth
- Time Warner still owning TIME magazine,
Sports Illustrated and Fortune
- Meredith Corporation taking control of most
of the other titles -- including People, Entertainment
Weekly, InStyle and Real Simple.
[Source: Time Warner]
Some call it an impulse buy for Meredith.
But the reported $2.5 billion deal is more
of a joint venture than a simple sale.
[Source: The New York Times]
Meredith and Time will reportedly form a new,
publicly traded joint company.
Bloomberg’s Edmund Lee says this could help
Time Warner big time -- it’s had trouble
making the move from print to web, where ad
rates are traditionally much lower.
“The move would let Time Warner offload
at least part of its worst-performing major
division, helping insulate the company from
an industry wide slump in advertising sales.”
So will Time Warner’s revenue increase as
a result of the move?
Forbes notes the sale of People magazine is
surprising -- it had $997 million in advertising
sales last year and is considered one of the
most profitable magazines out there.
Details are still being worked out.
One analyst tells CNBC it’s not really close,
and what’s more — no one really knows
yet what’s going to happen.
“It’s probably two weeks away from happening,
if it happens at all.
I should say that it’s still up in the air.
There’s a lot of speculation of what’s
happening.”
If the deal did go through, it would be the
biggest in Meredith’s history.
