Meredith/Time Could Require Magazine Divestitures
Meredith Corporation may need to sell overlapping magazines to obtain antitrust clearance for its $2.8 billion purchase of Time Inc. The acquisition was financed with $640 million from Koch Equity Development, the private investment arm of Charles and David Koch. If the DOJ does require divestitures, Partner David Kully said that enforcers would have to find that such particular magazines have the same relevant product market and narrowly target the same demographic so that the advertising market would be harmed by the merger.
"That feels unlikely to me, but if that’s what the DOJ determined, then divestiture is definitely the way that it would get resolved,” said Partner David Kully.
READ: Meredith/Time Could Require Magazine Divestitures (subscription required)