Meredith Corporation (MDP) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the TIME media brand to Marc and Lynne Benioff for $190M in cash. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval and is expected to close within 30 days. The Benioffs are purchasing TIME personally and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com (CRM), where Mr. Benioff is Chairman, co-CEO and founder.

"Mr. and Mrs. Benioff will not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by TIME's current executive leadership team," Meredith said in a press release. Meredith acquired TIME as part of its purchase of Time Inc., which closed on January 31, 2018. Shortly thereafter, Meredith announced it was selling Time Inc.'s news and sports brands - TIME, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and MONEY - to focus on brands serving its core audience of American women. Meredith expects to announce agreements for the remaining asset sales in the near future.

As part of the transaction, Meredith will provide short-term business continuity services and has entered into a multi-year agreement with the Benioffs to provide services such as consumer marketing, subscription fulfillment, paper purchasing and printing. Meredith will also be able to include the TIME brand in large corporate advertising buys. Meredith plans to use proceeds from the transaction to pay down debt. Meredith expects to reduce its debt by $1B during fiscal 2019. Meredith is targeting a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.0 times to 1 or better by the end of its fiscal 2020. This includes generating $1B of EBITDA and having net debt below $2B by the end of fiscal 2020.