Time Inc. missed Q1 estimates and now it’s worth far less than what buyers offered

Time Inc. said last month it wasn’t going to sell itself, signaling it could do better on its own than the $18 a share that magazine publisher Meredith offered.

But what was really going on is Time wanted a higher bid, more like $20 a share, and Meredith and other potential buyers couldn’t justify getting to that price. Or couldn’t quite raise that much.

So what’s happened in the weeks since Time decided to go it alone?

Today, the stock is down 16 percent, trading as low as $12.50 after it reported an earnings miss for the first quarter. It had sales of $636 million instead of the expected $641 million, and a loss of 18 cents a share instead of 15 cents.

But the main thing to know is its business is shrinking. Also, it cut the dividend from 19 cents to 4 cents a share. There’s just less reason now to own the stock.

The company, which publishes Sports Illustrated, People and Fortune, plans to sell off some titles and cut more staff.

Which magazines? The company hasn’t said, but you can look at all its titles here and guess which ones are “non core” to the business.

Media reporters (current and former), doing it via Twitter this morning:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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