Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective is acquiring a majority stake in The Atlantic and will likely take ownership of the whole publication within the next three to five years.
Jobs founded the Emerson Collective, which uses entrepreneurship to advance social reform and support education causes, in 2004. She is the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs and has an estimated $20.7 billion fortune. “What a privilege it is to partner with David Bradley and become a steward of The Atlantic, one of the country's most important and enduring journalistic institutions,” Jobs said in a press release. She also noted that one of the Atlantic's founders is Ralph Waldo Emerson, after whom the Emerson Collective is named. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Jobs is purchasing the majority stake from Atlantic Media chairman David G. Bradley, who will retain ownership of Atlantic Media subsidiaries, Quartz, National Journal and Government Executive. Bradley, who made a fortune in business consulting before buying Atlantic Media eighteen years ago, will continue to serve as chairman for at least the next three to five years, and maybe stay involved at the Atlantic after that. In a memo to staff announcing the decision, Bradley said that his children did not have an interest in the media business, and that as he looked for buyers, Jobs stood out at the top of his list of potentials and was the only person he approached. "What I loved about Laurene from the first is that her confidence was forged on a different coast," he wrote. "And, if anything, her ambition is greater than my own."
This is not the Emerson Collective's first media investment. In summer 2016, the Emerson Collective invested in media startup Axios (as did Bradley), and in September bought a minority stake in Anonymous Content, the production company that produced Spotlight. The Emerson Collective has also supported nonprofit journalism organizations ProPublica and the Marshall Project.
Jobs joins a number of billionaires who bought media publications after acquiring their wealth from other sources. Morningstar executive chairman Joe Mansueto bought Inc. and Fast Company magazines in 2005. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who briefly became the richest person in the world yesterday, purchased the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013. Soon after, Red Sox owner John Henry purchased the Boston Globe in October 2013 for $70 million. In December 2014, Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson secretly bought the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
