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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne Benioff, believe that their Time magazine purchase is subject to conditions.
The two announced Sunday they were buying the iconic US magazine for $ 190 million, just eight months after its previous owner, Meredith Corp, completed its acquisition of the title.
The Tycoons who buy press titles are nothing new, but Benioff's decision reflects a new trend in the acquisition of publications by technology billionaires.
He is the third high-tech tycoon to buy a printed title after Amazon's boss, Jeff Bezos, bought the Washington Post in 2013 for $ 250 million and that billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the THE
Like Bezos, the Benioffs might find the acquisition drawing the attention of US President Donald Trump, for better or for worse.
Trump is fascinated by the weather, and in particular by the magazine that chooses to appear on its covers and as annual "personality of the year".
At one point, the publication had to ask Trump to remove the false covers by showing him as his person of the year in several of his golf clubs. Trump appeared once as a person of the year in 2016, the year he was elected president.
Trump has tweeted on the covers in real time on many occasions.
There was the time when Trump claimed that he was fleeing the honor. Time challenged the statement, saying there was not "a grain of truth" in his comments.
A year earlier, he was in fact the person of Time's year.
He also made headlines in 2015.
There was the time when Trump was unhappy that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was chosen as the person of the year, the first woman appointed since 1986.
The president also ruminated, as he does with the New York Times, about The impending disappearance of time and who should lead the magazine. Bill O'Reilly, the political commentator quoted in this tweet, was forced to leave Fox News this year after multiple charges of sexual harassment.
Donald Trump will use publications to attack their owners
In the case of the Washington Post, Trump has shown a tendency to confuse publications with their owners.
He attacked Jeff Bezos, Amazon and the post office several times. He claimed that the Washington Post is only a lobbying tool for Bezos and called the newspaper "Amazon Washington Post".
With many American media, The Post has published many unflattering stories about Trump and his administration.
Marc Benioff can feel relatively safe. He was cautious about Donald Trump, initially proclaiming his support for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but later engaging with Trump and even congratulating him.
Benioff notably avoided making negative remarks about Trump during the election campaign. And in March of last year, he met with Trump and presented him with a job program that the president would be interested in pursuing.
And he was one of the few business leaders to praise Trump in Davos last January, where the president delivered a speech to entice big business but also used the platform to attack the media.
"thought it was a great speech," said Benioff at the time. "I thought his economic story had improved a lot now that the tax cuts are over." In August, the Salesforce CEO attributed an increase in activities to Trump's tax cuts.
But despite this caution, and the fact that Time has no connection with Salesforce, Benioff could be the victim of attacks for any negative coverage that the time chooses for the president.
The publication put Donald Trump on the cover earlier this summer by severely watching a crying girl, to highlight the administration's tough border policy with Mexico. He also produced a series of blankets depicting Trump being beaten by the stormy weather in the oval office.
Benioff might need to prepare for a presidential anger when the acquisition will be over.
The agreement also risks driving the entire technology sector towards Trump's line of sight. The president has developed a taste for the attack of Amazon and, more recently, of Google. Negative coverage over time could provide more ammunition in the future.
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