Media

Salesforce Founder Marc Benioff makes deal to buy Time Magazine for $190 million

Key Points
  • The founder of Salesforce, Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff, have agreed to buy Time magazine for $190 million in cash from media and marketing company, Meredith Corporation.
  • The Benioffs are purchasing the magazine personally and the deal has nothing to do with Salesforce, where Benioff is Chairman, co-CEO, according to a release by Meredith.
Time magazine covers
Eric Baradat | AFP | Getty Images

The founder of Salesforce, Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff, have agreed to buy Time magazine for $190 million in cash from media and marketing company, Meredith Corporation.

The deal is expected to be completed within 30 days, according to a press release by Meredith.

"The Benioffs are purchasing TIME personally and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Mr. Benioff is Chairman, co-CEO and founder," according to the release.

The Benioffs "will not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by TIME's current executive leadership team," the release said.

"The power of Time has always been in its unique storytelling of the people & issues that affect us all & connect us all," Benioff tweeted on Sunday. "A treasure trove of our history & culture. We have deep respect for their organization & honored to be stewards of this iconic brand," he said on Twitter.

Another high-profile technology CEO, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, acquired the Washington Post in 2013. U.S. President Donald Trump has made the newspaper a frequent target of angry twitter outbursts.

Benioff says he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, though he publicly supported Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Meredith completed its purchase of Time at the end of January 2018. Soon after its completion, Meredith said it was selling Time's news and sports brands to focus on other brands that served its core target audience: American women.

"On behalf of the entire TIME team, we are very excited to begin this next chapter in our history," said Time Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal. "We can't imagine better stewards for TIME than Marc and Lynne Benioff."