Sign In
SHARE
Time Piece: Is Time Inc. Ready for a Spin-Out?
Jeff Bercovici is on vacation. Guest blogger Sean Elder submits:
Some people in the banking business say Time Inc. is to be spun off, probably in the next few weeks. The leading magazine publisher in the world is but a part of the Time Warner empire, of course, and not the most profitable part. The words "magazine publisher" and "profitable" are seldom used in the same sentence these days.
Warning signs include the way they unceremoniously dumped Business 2.0 a few weeks ago, turning down offers from rivals such as Mansueto Ventures (Fast Company) and using surviving staff members to fatten the masthead at Fortune.
"It wasn't a big enough loss for the market to care," according to one who has been apprised of the thinking behind the deal. "I think they are scrubbing the quarterly numbers for the Time Inc. division, to get ready for a spin-out."
This is not the 1966 Elvis Presley racing flick but the act of splitting off of one division of a company as a separate entity. And this would not be a leveraged buy-out, our source tells us, or a private equity deal. But quite likely we are seeing a prelude to an IPO. Insiders also point to the recent restructuring over there, with the staff-reducing buyout packages that cleared the benches (though not necessarily the dead wood) from such venerable titles as Sports Illustrated and Time itself.
by Sean Elder
Update: Time Warner's communications chief Ed Adler on Thursday denied the idea of a Time Inc. spinoff. "It's not true," he said. He also noted that I should have sought Time Warner comment on the bankers' musings before posting on Wednesday.
Loading...
Thank you for registering as a Portfolio.com Insider. Your comment has been added.
Create Your Public Profile
- Conde Nast Closing 'Portfolio'
- Apr 27 2009 10:02AM EDT
- Newspaper Circ: 'WSJ' Gains as 'NY Post' Tumbles
- Apr 27 2009 9:32AM EDT
- Idle Chatter: The Prognosis for Newspapers, more
- Apr 27 2009 8:55AM EDT
- Late Breaks: MySpace, NYT, 'New York'
- Apr 24 2009 4:01PM EDT
- Nostalgia, Entitlement and Murdoch's 'Journal'
- Apr 24 2009 4:00PM EDT
- Huffpo's Lerer on the 'New and Better' Journalism
- Apr 24 2009 12:44PM EDT
- Ailes Heats Up Cold Spring with Newspaper War
- Apr 24 2009 12:33PM EDT
- Happy Friday. Now Watch This.
- Apr 24 2009 10:24AM EDT
- Idle Chatter: NPR Cutbacks, Jon Meacham, more
- Apr 24 2009 8:50AM EDT
- Late Breaks: Twitter and the 'Times,' more
- Apr 23 2009 5:59PM EDT
- CNN Partner's Polling Finds CNN Fair, Balanced
- Apr 23 2009 4:10PM EDT
- 'Scientific American' Editor Out in Reorg
- Apr 23 2009 3:19PM EDT
- Idle Chatter: MySpace, Nerve, 'Millionaire,' more
- Apr 23 2009 8:20AM EDT
- Late Breaks: 'Observer' Editor Resigns, more
- Apr 22 2009 4:15PM EDT
- One Marriage, One Memoir, Two Opinions
- Apr 22 2009 2:31PM EDT
Archive
Categories
Links
- Contact Me
- News After Newspapers
- Romenesko
- Gawker
- Ad Age
- WWD's Memo Pad
- Keith Kelly
- NYT Media
- Jon Fine
- TVNewser
- Magazine Death Pool
- HuffPo Media
- Galleycat
- News Hounds
- Newsbusters
- Jezebel
- Editor & Publisher
- Hollywood Wiretap
- The Media Pundit
- FAIR
- I Want Media
- Viral Video
- Nikki Finke
- MediaFile
- The Business Insider
- Paid Content
- Valleywag
- Cover Awards
- Talking Biz News
- SI.com - Richard Deitsch
- Gapper Blog - Media
- Jon Friedman
- Nieman Journalism Lab
- NY Observer media page
- Media Shift
- Tyndall Report
- Media Nation
