Time Inc., the publisher of the magazines Time, People and Sports Illustrated, will sell itself to the Meredith Corporation in a deal worth $2.8 billion, the companies said on Sunday. Meredith will pay $18.50 a share for the legacy media giant.

The sale, which will close in the beginning of next year, was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies.

The deal is backed by $650 million in financing from Koch Equity Development, the private equity group owned by billionaire brothers and conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch.

It’s unclear why the Koch brothers have backed the acquisition, the third time Meredith has attempted to buy Time Inc. Prior negotiations collapsed in 2013 after the companies failed to decide which magazines Meredith would buy. And earlier this year, Time Inc. said it didn’t want to sell itself.

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