Recently it was rumored that Koch Industries would provide $500 million to Meredith Corporation in a pursuit to take over TIME Magazine. The Meredith Corporation is a media conglomerate that owns various magazines (Shape Magazine, Better Home and Gardens, and even Fit Pregnancy). The Meredith Corporation also owns 17 T.V. stations as well. It has been rumored that Meredith Corporation secured $600 million from a private equity subsidiary of Koch Industries. My guess would be this would originate from the folks at the Koch Equity Development division. According to an article from Chris Leonard the Koch Equity Development group "reports directly to Charles and other senior executives and which operates like a high level think tank, evaluating potential deals, sometimes on a 10 to 15 year horizon".
Historical investments of Koch Equity Development can be seen here. Koch according to a Wall Street Journal article is also in the business of financing small leverage buyouts. Koch even divides out what types of deals they will perform. The company divides acquisitions into four categories. The first is a tuck-in acquisition which allows Koch to purchase a company that will complement an existing Koch company product/platform. The next type of acquisition is the new platform acquisition which targets companies with EBITDA (earnings before income taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of $250 million. Next would be a partnered acquisition where Koch provides equity with other partners (up to a 50% ownership with joint control). The last type of acquisition that Koch will provide is structured investments. In this type of acquisition Koch will will invest $100 million for a minority position (Koch did this with American Greetings back in 2013). American Greetings is the second largest greeting card company in the United States (Hallmark is number one). The company wanted to transition from a publicly traded company to a privately traded company. The deal was funded from contributions of stock from the Weiss family (owners of American Greetings Stock), cash from $240 million of non-voting preferred stock from Koch AG Investment LLC (subsidiary of Koch) along with $600 million of debt financing.
Of course the media has had outcries for Koch Industries from Vanity Fair, the LA Times, The New York Times, and The Nation. What people worry about is that Koch Industries will turn Time Magazine into vehicle for "the Koch brothers" to share their vision of limited government and free markets. People forget that Koch Industries back in 2013 made a run for the Chicago Tribune but then lost interest. What is interesting is that Charles and David Koch appeared in the Time 100 multiple years (2011, 2014, 2015). Vanity Fair points out when Time had a gala David Koch would be dancing and having a good time (the gala was filled with mostly people of different political viewpoints).
Personally I don't believe Koch Industries will take an active role in TIME magazine. To me the $500 million of financing is Koch lending Meredith monies to purchase Time magazine but Koch most likely wouldn't want to get involved with the day to day management. Also given too that Koch has no experience in this area I view the deal has a way to provide financing for a deal while earning a rate of return for Koch.
