Time Inc. is on its own.
Hours after ringing the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange, marking the publishing giant’s first steps as an independent company in 24 years, CEO Joe Ripp said any return to growth would have to come from within.
In other words — don’t expect a blockbuster deal.
“There will be opportunities for acquisitions, but I don’t see a transformative acquisition in the near future,” Ripp said in a wide-ranging interview that touched on the company’s debt, its ability to staunch revenue declines — and possible acquisitions.
“I’ve had no conversations with Meredith and I have no plans to talk with [Meredith CEO] Steve Lacey in the near future,” Ripp said, when asked if there was any chance of rekindling merger talks with its rival magazine publisher.
Talks between the two companies broke off in March 2013.
Time Inc., whose titles such as People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune, are among the most popular in the country, is expected to generate free cash flow of $300 million “after interest expense,” Ripp said.
The CEO defended the $1.3 billion in debt that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes saddled it with when he spun it off from Time Warner on Friday.
“The capital structure I believe is in the right place,” Ripp said. “If we had gone out debt free, the sharks would have shown up quite quickly.”
Ripp concedes “print is still a difficult environment.”
He said at least one title has already turned the corner where its video, digital and events are already offsetting declines in print advertising.
Ripp declined to name the title.
Norm Pearlstine, the chief content officer, said, “Just as we have to be more than print, the answer is not a digital transformation, per se, we have to be firing on all cylinders.”
“Video is not going to be my salvation,” Ripp concedes, “but short-form video is an outgrowth of expertise we already have.”
While some managers had expected five or six more years of downsizing, Ripp said that won’t necessarily be the case.
“It’s not about downsizing, it’s about are we making the appropriate investments in our products,” he said.
Ripp said the company had about 7,500 employees at the end of 2013, and although that number may drop in the near term, he said that “in the long term, if we get this right, it will go up.”
The stock closed Monday at $23.30, down 0.8 percent. It trades under the ticker: TIME.
It had been a part of Time Warner since the merger with Warner Communications in 1990.