Fortune officially has a new owner. Meredith has just sold the magazine to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million. The company originally bought the magazine — part of a larger deal to buy Time Inc. — only a year ago. A few months after the deal, Meredith announced that it would sell off Fortune, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Money. Time was purchased Marc Benioff in a deal that closed last week.
WWD reports that Fortune‘s EIC Clifton Leaf is expected to stay in his position, and that Alan Murray will also remain with the publication, becoming its president and CEO. Additionally, the offices will continue to operate in their current location for the time being. “The demand for high-quality business information is growing,” Jiaravanon said in a statement obtained by WWD. “With further committed investment in technology and brilliant journalism, we believe the outlook for further profitable growth is excellent both for the publication and the events business.”
Because Jiaravanon has no prior publishing experience, Meredith will “continue to provide a number of publishing services” to the magazine, including corporate sales, paper purchasing, printing, marketing, and subscription fulfillment. This is similar to what they will be providing for Beinoff (who also has no prior magazine experience) with Time, meaning that Meredith will continue to make money off the publications, despite no longer owning them.
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