Time, the pre-eminent weekly newsmagazine of the 20th century, has a new owner: Marc Benioff, the billionaire co-founder of the San Francisco software company Salesforce, The New York Times reported.
Time’s current owner, the Iowa-based Meredith Corporation, announced that it had entered into what it described in a news release as “a definitive agreement” to sell the storied publication to Mr. Benioff and his wife, Lynne, for $190 million in cash.
In its statement, Meredith said that the Benioffs would be hands-off owners and made it clear that the deal had nothing to do with Salesforce.
“The Benioffs are purchasing Time personally and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Mr. Benioff is chairman, co-C.E.O. and founder,” Meredith said in its release. “Mr. and Mrs. Benioff 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.”