Time Warner may sell Time Inc., the largest US magazine publisher
A sign stands in front of the Time & Life building in Manhattan on January 30, 2013 in New York City.
Time Inc. may be saying goodbye to Time Warner.
The largest magazine publisher in the United States — which pulled $3.4 billion in revenue in 2012 — is reportedly up for sale by its owner to an anonymous buyer, according to Fortune (itself a Time Inc. magazine, along with titles like People, InStyle, Sports Illustrated, and Real Simple).
A meeting with the buyer's reps is scheduled for Wednesday, though Forbes reported that the deal is "in a formative stage and may never come to fruition."
Time Inc. has been struggling in recent years: its revenue in 2012 was down about 7 percent from 2011, and its operating income fell a whopping 25 percent to $420 million, according to Folio Magazine. It is also currently in the process of laying off 6 percent of its workforce worldwide.
One of the possible outcomes is that Time Inc. keeps a select few titles like Time and Sports Illustrated, and sells off the rest of its 21 brands, Folio reported.
"It's always a good question," said Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes earlier this month about whether they'd be getting rid of Time Inc., according to Fortune.
"There's tremendous resilience in the national magazine publishing business, but advertising demand is secularly not so strong; it's down a bit. The question whether we ought to put that into a different frame is one we've been asking," he added.
A spokesman for Time Warner refused to comment on the potential deal, Reuters reported.
More from GlobalPost: Time Inc. cuts 6 percent of its workforce
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