Etienne Uzac conceived the idea for the International Business Times while studying at the London School of Economics. The publication officially launched online in April 2006 as ibtimes.com with Johnathan Davis joining to build the enterprise.
Jeffery Rothfeder joined the company in May 2012 as editor-in-chief after serving as a national news editor at Bloomberg. Peter S. Goodman took over as editor-in-chief in 2014 following his departure from The Huffington Post, and Dayan Candappa replaced him in 2016 before Pragad arrived in early 2017 to serve as global CEO.
IBT Media announced its acquisition of Newsweek and the domain newsweek.com from IAC/InterActiveCorp on the 4th of August 2013. A legal dispute initiated by IBT Media in 2022 regarding separation terms was dismissed and upheld on appeal in 2023 before closing due to statute of limitations by 2024.
The International Business Times won or was nominated for multiple journalism awards starting in 2012 including best investigative journalism and editor of the year. In 2015 the publication received a Gerald Loeb Award nomination for reporting on state pension corruption, and four Best in Business awards came from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2016.
The International Business Times publishes five national editions across four languages including Australia India Singapore U.K. and U.S. versions. The publication claimed forty million unique visitors each month in 2014 according to company data.