From http://www.mediabistro.com/
Playboy Goes Private
By Chris O’Shea on January 10, 2011 10:43 AM
When people can go pretty much anywhere online to see naked women, how does a monthly magazine that built its reputation on pornography (and articles!) stay relevant? Well, it’s not that easy. Playboy magazine has been hurting for quite some time now (it currently has over $100 million in debt), but perhaps with Hugh Hefner taking control of Playboy Enterprises Inc., the publishing company behind Playboy, things will start to turn around.
Today Hefner, all 84 years of him, becomes owner of the magazine he founded way back when with a picture of a semi-nude Marilyn Monroe. Hefner had this to say about the deal:
With the completion of this transaction, Playboy will come full circle, returning to its roots as a private company. The brand resonates today as clearly as at any time in its 57-year history. I believe this agreement will give us the resources and flexibility to return Playboy to its unique position and to further expand our business around the world.
Scott Flanders, the current CEO of Playboy Enterprises, will retain his position. He commented that he hopes to “transform Playboy into a brand management company.”
Yawn, other than Pam and the Russki spy, I see nothing interesting. 20Q with Chloe Sevigny? She blow Vincent Gallo again? Frank Gehry? This is Playboy not Vanity Fair. Needs more naked pics, more celebrities naked, fully naked. A couple of mil for a Lindsay Lohan pictorial, sounds like a good deal. They could do with some hardcore Larry Flynt like journalism…yeah I know he doesnt do much but when he does, oh boy.
The Club Jenna purchase was a financial disaster for them and Christie (his daughter) “retired” from the company a short time later. Playboy TV has been dying for years and I don’t know why they haven’t pulled the plug on it yet.
A few years ago most of their $$$ came from selling some of their Spice channel hardcore content to hotels but now most of it comes from licensing the bunny (the tacky Playboy shit you see at the mall). Christie ran the company into the ground and their affiliate programs were a disaster and basically gave away most of their cyberclub content for free. I think Hef is hoping the biopic that Brian Grazer has been developing for him the last few years will bring him back to some relevance.
The shows on E! were successful but those are waning now, the Kendra show is the only one that is successful and the Playmate house spinoff never took off. Holly picked some great Playmates when she was in charge, since she left, the girls that have been chosen have been very hit or miss.
At the end of 2009, Playboy’s total assets (many of them questionably valued) were reported as being worth $197 million and their liabilities as $219 million; the company only losing $51 million (they lost over 3x that in 2008). Every aspect of the company seemed to be losing even more money in 2010 yet Hef values the company as being worth $185 million, perhaps exclusive of the aforementioned debt, and borrowed a ton of money to take the company private. His plan was to focus on licensing the name/brand more than anything else. I suppose this is another version of what used to be called “new math”?