A United States media company, Meredith Corporation, said on Sunday it will buy Time Inc that publishes magazines such as Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune, in a transaction valued at $2.8 billion (approximately Rs 18,060 crore). Meredith is owned by right-wing billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who will partly fund the deal through their private equity firm.

Meredith has said that the Koch brothers’ equity firm will not have any influence over the editorial decisions of the merged media group. The transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of 2018, Meredith said. It has held unsuccessful talks to buy Time twice earlier.

Meredith publishes brands such as Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens and AllRecipes. It began with a magazine called Successful Farming in 1902. Time Inc’s first magazine was Fortune in 1930.

The two media groups will have a combined readership of 135 million people and paid circulation of nearly 60 million. Online, Meredith expects 170 million monthly unique visitors from the US and over 10 billion annual video views.