Time Inc., Meredith Corp. stocks jump amid merger speculation

The shares of both Time Inc. and Meredith Corp. touched 52-week highs on Wednesday after a top Meredith executive said he would, in certain circumstance, be interested in opportunities for his TV or magazines assets.

“[I]f there was a deal for scale,” Meredith would be interested, Chief Financial Officer Joe Ceryanec said at a Citi media conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, sparking a new round of speculation that the two publishers would be involved in some sort of deal.

Time is one of the few opportunities out there for a big-deal combination with Meredith, owner of TV stations and magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens and Martha Stewart Living.

“Now, obviously we’re interested in expanding across all our platforms, whether it is the
magazine/digital in the national media group or whether it’s on the local broadcast [TV stations],” Ceryanec said.

“I would say we would look at pursuing any of those,” he said. “Obviously, we’re not going to comment on any specific deal at this point.”

A deal that would have given its broadcast side added heft by combining with Media General fell apart last year.

Time shares shot up to $18.65 in midday trading just after the Meredith 9:30 a.m. Las Vegas presentation. Time stock closed at $18.45, up 2.5 percent for the day. Meredith also jumped to $60.20, before closing at $59.95, up 2 percent.

Time Inc. had talked merger with Meredith 3?/? years ago.

When the Meredith talks collapsed in early 2013, Time’s then-parent, Time Warner, turned around and moved to spin off Time Inc. as its own public company. Time Inc. went public in June 2014 at $23 a share.

Many analysts continue to think a Time deal with Meredith would give scale and efficiencies to both companies.

But such a combination has been made more complicated by the trio of billionaires — Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music Chairman Len Blavatnik and former Maker Studio Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz — who approached the Time board about buying the company for $1.8 billion, or around $18 a share.

They were rebuffed last November.

They have not sweetened their offer because they felt they would only be bidding against themselves, sources said.