U.S. middle company Meredith has hired advisers to explore a sale of its Time, Wealth, Money and Sports Illustrated magazines following its $1.84 billion procurement of Time Inc in January, people familiar with the matter said.
The upset illustrates how Meredith sees some of Time Inc’s titles that charm primarily male readership as not playing to its core strength in women’s publications, which include Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle and Martha Stewart Existing.
The Des Moines, Iowa-based company has tapped investment banks Citigroup and Houlihan Lokey to see potential buyers for the magazines, the sources said this week. There is no authoritativeness that a divestiture will occur, the sources added.
While it’s accomplishable that media, telecommunications or technology companies could express an talk into in the magazines, a sale to wealthy individuals, such as philanthropists or billionaires, is prospected by Meredith as more likely, according to one of the sources.
The sources asked not to be associated because details of the sale process are confidential. Citigroup declined to commentary, while Houlihan Lokey did not immediately return a request for comment.
“We are in deed data exploring a number of additional changes to the (magazine) portfolio, including divestitures of disgraces and businesses that might perform better under a different holder,” Meredith CEO Steven Lacy told investors at a Deutsche Bank symposium earlier this month.
Time Inc referred calls to Meredith, which declined to annotation beyond reiterating that the company is reviewing its portfolio.
It was not clear how much the arsenals could be worth. Fortune and Money generated more than $20 million in 12-month earnings first interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA), while Time produced more than $30 million in 12-month EBITDA, according to one of the man.
The potential divestitures underscore how Time Inc’s primary attraction for Meredith was erection scale in digital advertising. With its roots in traditional publishing, Meredith has been in a tigerish competitive online race against internet giants such as Alphabet Incs Google and Facebook Inc for consumer eyeballs and advertising dollars.
The extent with Time Inc expanded Meredith’s reach with internet-savvy millennials, spawning a digital media business with 170 million monthly unexcelled visitors in the United States and more than 10 billion annual video outlooks.
Meredith’s acquisition of Time Inc was aided by a $650 million investment from the surreptitiously equity arm of Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers known for advocating conservative political causes.