Time, Inc., a division of Times Warner, Inc., has agreed to purchase Times Mirror Magazines from The Tribune Company for 475-million dollars. Times Mirror Magazines is the parent company of TransWorld Media, publishers of TransWorld SKATEboarding, TransWorld SNOWboarding, TransWorld SURF, Ride BMX, SNAP, and other action-sports titles and related trade journals, including SKATEboarding Business. Times Warner is the world's largest media company with properties that include Time magazine, CNN, and America Online.
This morning The Wall Street Journal ran a story on the sale ("Time Warner To Pay $475 Million To Buy Times Mirror Magazines," October 20, 2000), and reported that "the acquisition will beef up Time's Sports Illustrated unit, which largely missed the boom in extreme and niche sports." When TransWorld SKATEboarding was bought last year by Times Mirror, the new owner allowed the California subsidiary to operate unchanged and without interference. Such was the case when Chicago's Tribune Company bought Times Mirror earlier this year. The effect of the latest sale to Time, Inc. has yet to be felt, but TransWorld staff are confident that the small Southern California office will continue to operate business as usual. Sports Illustrated's specific interests in the "extreme-sports" titles has not yet been communicated to TransWorld staff, who hope to continue to build their magazines without interference from their new parent company.
Click here for the Financial Times story on the Time, Inc. purchase of Times Mirror.
