On Wednesday, Meredith Corporation announced its acquisition of Time Inc. was complete. February 1 marks the first day of operations for the combined company.
The final merging of the two companies culminates what was possibly the most surprising media story of 2017. Late last year, when Meredith announced its plans, some were shaken to learn the Koch brothers were, in part, behind the funding. In the months that followed, speculation swirled around the fate of some of Time Inc.’s stalwart titles.
Essence and Sunset were sold; there were rumored talks of investors interested in Golf.
The acquisition of Time Inc. puts Meredith in the powerful position of becoming a top 10 digital media company with around 170 million unique visitors in the U.S., over 10 billion annual video views and almost $700 million in annual digital advertising revenue. The company reaches 85% of U.S. millennial women and is poised to benefit from native, video, programmatic, social and shopper marketing advertising platforms.