Billionaire tech mogul Marc Benioff is reportedly in talks to sell Time magazine to a Greek media conglomerate.
Benioff, who co-founded enterprise software giant Salesforce and who boasts a net worth valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $10.7 billion as of Friday, has engaged Antenna Group about a deal for Time, according to CNBC.
Sources familiar with the discussions told CNBC that Benioff, who bought Time in 2018 for $190 million, was mulling a $150 million offer from Antenna Group.
Benioff acquired the magazine from Meredith Corp, which owned the publication for less than a year.
Last month, Benioff expressed frustration that Vice President Kamala Harris declined to sit for an interview with Time.
Benioff criticized Harris while pointing out that ex-President Donald Trump and President Biden — before he dropped out — both sat down for interviews during their campaigns.
“Despite multiple requests, TIME has not been granted an interview with Kamala Harris — unlike every other Presidential candidate,” tweeted Benioff.
In September, Time raised eyebrows when it excluded Elon Musk from its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence.
Antenna has been eager to break into the American media market. In 2022, it nearly acquired Vice Media before the company filed for bankruptcy.
Time, like other magazines, has struggled with continued declines in print advertising and newsstand sales.
At its peak between the 1970s and 1990s, Time’s circulation exceeded 4 million copies nationwide — beating out competitors such as Newsweek and US News & World Report.
In 2012, Time had a circulation of 3.3 million. Today, its readership numbers around 1.6 million subscribers.
Started by Yale University graduates Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, Time first went on sale in March 1923.
Before Benioff bought the magazine, it was trying to shift to a digital strategy, but it struggled.
Time posted two straight years of annual losses and its revenue declined since it split off from Time Warner in 2014.
