Time buys IPC for $1.6B

July 25, 2001 Posted: 1707 GMT

NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- AOL Time Warner agreed Wednesday to acquire UK publisher IPC Group Ltd. from investment firm Cinven for $1.6 billion cash, expanding AOL's magazine footprint outside the United States.

Time Inc., a unit of media conglomerate AOL (AOL: down $0.02 to $42.68, Research, Estimates), will add IPC's portfolio of more than 100 titles that include such magazines as Marie Claire and Loaded.

It is unknown how long it will take to close the purchase, which is conditional upon securing European Union approval and other customary conditions, a spokesman said.

"With some of the best known consumer publishing brands in Europe, IPC provides Time Inc. with an important presence within the European consumer publishing sector," Time Inc. CEO and Chairman Don Logan said.

London-based Cinven is a private equity group that is a majority shareholder of IPC, which it bought in 1998 from Reed Elsevier PLC for £860 million.

The purchase was expected and news of the acquisition first appeared earlier this month in the Financial Times.

Time Inc. publishes over 60 magazines including People and Sports Illustrated as well as Time. AOL Time Warner also is the parent company of CNNfn.

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