MUMBAI: The founder of audio equipment company Harman Industries, Sidney Harman, has acquired loss-making Newsweek from the Washington Post for $ 1.

As part of the deal, Harman will also accept Newsweek's liabilities of approximately $71 million. He will also retain most of the weekly's 350 employees and give it a couple of years to reverse losses.

Founded in 1933, Newsweek had incurred losses to the tune of nearly $30 million last year and another $11 million in the first quarter of this year. The Washington Post Co, which bought Newsweek almost 50 years ago, had been looking for a buyer since May this year.

Harman, who turns 92 today, started a business selling FM radios in the 1950s and built it into one of the largest audio equipment companies in the world.