Got 300 million dollars? Then you can buy Playboy!!!

[dx23]

Reports swirl that Playboy's being shopped for $300 million

By Greg Burns | Tribune reporter
11:01 AM CDT, May 22, 2009

It's the little company that can – generate buzz, that is.

Despite losing money, losing readers of its flagship magazine and losing viewers of its pay-per-view TV programs, Playboy Enterprises Inc. is still attracting plenty of attention.

The New York Post reported Friday that Playboy is being shopped to potential buyers for $300 million – much more than its current $94 million market capitalization, though it's unclear whether that asking price includes assumption of debt.

The Post said Apollo Capital Partners and Providence Equity Partners were approached and that former Playboy entertainment group president James Griffiths, who left the company years ago, is involved in the process. The speculation drove Playboy shares up 33 cents, to $2.86, in trading Friday morning.

A spokesman reportedly said the Chicago-based company hasn't received a purchase offer, but would listen to proposals "that would create value for all of our shareholders."

Interim Chief Executive Jerome Kern has told Wall Street he's open to ideas for boosting shareholder value, but not everyone's convinced a sale is under serious consideration. "They're not going to let it go cheap," said Steve Marascia, research analyst at Capitol Securities in Virginia.

Founder and controlling shareholder Hugh Hefner has resisted offers to sell in the past. He remains editor of Playboy Magazine and lives in the company-owned Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills.

Although his daughter, Christie, stepped down from her long-time post as CEO in January, her father has said that he intends to pass on his ownership interest to teenage sons, Marston and Cooper.

"To get Hef to sign off, it would have to be pretty attractive," said Marascia. "Bottom line, it's his baby."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,4235938.story

Lets start a drive so we can buy Playboy.

[DthRdrX]

Do Hef's girlfriends come with the package? They are Playboy property, right?

[kvrdave]

Might have been on A&E, but I saw a show about Hef's sons and growing up in the mansion. Pretty interesting.

Hard for me to imagine a way to make this a money maker, especially at that cost. Maybe spend $200 million on the place and $100 million getting the hottest 50 celebs to pose that have never posed before.

And then hire goons to keep anyone from using the internet.

[X]

Boy, that's tempting...

Didn't Playboy get any stimulus money?

(insert joke here)

[KillerCannibal]

Once Hef dies, so will the mag. Who the hell even reads Playboy these days?

[GoldenJCJ]

Teenage boys interested in owning Playboy? Get the fuck outta here!


I guess there's no competing with the internet where you can get naked chicks for free at the push of a button, but I'm kind of surprised Playboy is worth that little. Old Hef probably should have sold it 20 years ago.

[spainlinx0]

The only way I can see money being made from them anymore is merchandising. I notice that the Playboy Bunny still seems to adorn a lot of clothes, but I can't imagine it's worth $300 million. Methinks they are living in the past with that figure.

[mike45]

They might be able to revive the magazine. If they get all their Playboy Bunnies to start doing hardcore porn. Hef's girlfriends doing gonzo. I'd subscribe to that.

[Sdallnct]

Originally Posted by KillerCannibal

Once Hef dies, so will the mag. Who the hell even reads Playboy these days?

[big whoppa]

Originally Posted by KillerCannibal

Once Hef dies, so will the mag. Who the hell even reads Playboy these days?

Has anyone ever actually "read" Playboy??

[DVD Polizei]

I used to read the articles, which were actually informative (discussions with couples on sex). But I soon realized why I never got to the end of the particular article.

There was a hot naked woman on the adjacent page.

[The Edit King]

Some of the interviews were pretty DAMN good.

Here's a list from Jan 1961 to Feb 1996.

-THEEKBOY!

[Supermallet]

As an actual magazine, Playboy had a lot more to recommend it than your average porno mag, including debuting works by important authors. But that was all obviously overshadowed by the naked women.

[DthRdrX]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

As an actual magazine, Playboy had a lot more to recommend it than your average porno mag, including debuting works by important authors. But that was all obviously overshadowed by the naked women.

Over the last decade or so I really gave up caring about Playboy.

Sure, it was great during my High School years in the mid to late 90s but the constant airbrushing completely turned me off caring about it anymore.

[smashthesymbols]

Originally Posted by big whoppa

Has anyone ever actually "read" Playboy??

Yes. Coincidentally I was just having a discussion about Playboy with someone at work yesterday. The two of us, both straight males, agreed that it's actually better for reading than the pictures and that they could take the naked ladies out and we would have the exact same interest level in the magazine. The pictures anymore are so airbrushed and the women so fake that I don't understand how anyone could be aroused by them, aside from a 12 year old seeing boobs for the first time.

[AGuyNamedMike]

Originally Posted by The Edit King

Some of the interviews were pretty DAMN good.

Here's a list from Jan 1961 to Feb 1996.

-THEEKBOY!

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

As an actual magazine, Playboy had a lot more to recommend it than your average porno mag, including debuting works by important authors. But that was all obviously overshadowed by the naked women.

I have to admit that I used to read the articles and fiction excerpts as well. As noted by Suprmallet, quite a few contemporary authors got their big break in Playboy. Pity the mag has been dumbed down so much in the past decade or two.

[The Edit King]

AGNM:

Originally Posted by The Edit King

Some of the interviews were pretty DAMN good.

Here's a list from Jan 1961 to Feb 1996.

-THEEKBOY!

Originally Posted by Paul3rd

Really? I'm too lazy to click a link. Can you post a list of interview-ees?

Sure! But it's only from '61 to '96 and some of the names are repeated because of multiple interviews.

Ready?

Here it is!:

Miles Davis
Peter Sellers
Jackie Gleason
Frank Sinatra
Bertrand Russell
Helen Gurley Brown
Malcolm X
Billy Wilder
Richard Burton
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jimmy Hoffa
Dr. Albert Schweitzer
Vladmir Nabakov
Ayn Rand
Jean Genet
Jack Lemmon
Ingmar Bergman
Salvador Dali
Dick Gregory
Henry Miller
Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali)
George Wallace
Ian Fleming

Martin Luther King Jr.
The Beatles
Art Buchwald
Jean-Paul Satre
Melvin Belli
Marcello Mastrioanni
Robert Shelton
Peter O'Toole
Madalyn Murray
Sean Connery
Al Cappone
Princess Grace (Kelly)
Federico Fellini
Bob Dylan
George Lincoln Rockwell
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Mike Nichols
Ralph Ginzburg
H. L. Hunt
Timothy Leary
Mel Brooks
Norman Thomas
Sammy Davis Jr.

Fidel Castro
Mark Lane
Orson Welles
Arnold Toynbee
Woody Allen
Michael Caine
F. Lee Bailey
John Lindsey
Jim Garrison
Michelangelo Antonioni
Johnny Carson

Norman Mailer
Alex Haley
Truman Capote
Charles Percy
Masters and Johnson
John Galbraith
Paul Newman
William Sloane Coffin
Stanley Kubrick
Ralph Nader
Don Rickles
Eldridge Cleaver

Lee Marvin
Mort Sahl
Marshall McLuhan
Allen Ginsberg
Bill Cosby
Gore Vidal
Rod Steiger
Ramsey Clark
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin
Jesse Jackson
Joe Namath
Raquel Welch
Ray Charles
Dr. Mary Calderone
William F. Buckley Jr.

Tiny Tim
Joan Baez
Dr. Paul Ehrlich
Peter Fonda
William Kunstler
Elliot Gould
Robert Graves
Mae West
Tom Murton
Dick Cavett
John Wayne
Albert Speer
John Cassavetes
George McGovern
Jules Feiffer
Charles Evers
Allen Klein
Roman Polanski

Germaine Greer
R. Buckminster Fuller
Saul Alinsky
Jack Nicholson
Howard Cosell
Jackie Stewart
Anthony Herbert
Sam Peckinpah
Bernadette Devlin
Meir Kahane
Jack Anderson
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Carroll O'Connor
Milton Freeman
Joe Frazier
Tennessee Williams
Huey Newton
Walter Cronkite
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
David Halberstam
Pete Rozelle
James Dickey
Bob Hope

Hugh Hefner
Clint Eastwood
Groucho Marx
Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden
Henry Aaron
Admiral Elmo Zumwalt
Barry Commoner
Erich von Daniken
Anthony Burgess
Al Goldstein
Hunter Thompson
Robert Redford
John Dean
Mel Brooks
Billie Jean King
Dustin Hoffman
William E. Simon
Joseph Heller
Francis Ford Coppola
Philip Agee
Erica Jong
Cher
Muhammad Ali
Jimmy Hoffa

Elton John
James Caan
Norman Lear
Jerry Brown
Abbie Hoffman
Sara Jane Moore
Lily Tomlin
Robert Altman
David Bowie
Roone Arledge
Jimmy Carter
O. J. Simpson
Alex Haley
Keith Stroup
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Gary Gilmore
"Saturday Night Live" Cast
Robert Blake
Andrew Young
Henry Winkler
James Earl Ray
Barbra Striesand
Henry Kyemba
John Denver
Don Meredith
Bob Dylan
David Frost
Anita Bryant

George Burns
William Colby
Dolly Parton
Sylvester Stallone
Dolly Parton
Geraldo Rivera
John Travolta
Marlon Brando
Neil Simon
Ted Patrick
Malcolm Forbes
Wendy/Walter Carlos
Dennis Kucinich
Joseph Wambaugh
Edward Teller
Pete Rose
Burt Reynolds
Masters and Johnson
Al Pacino
Steve Martin
Patrick Caddell
John Connally
Linda Ronstandt
Gay Talese
John Anderson
Bruce Jenner
William Shockley

Roy Scheider
G. Gordon Liddy
Larry Hagman
George C. Scott
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Tom Snyder
James Garner
Ed Asner
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Steve Garvey
Robert Garwood
George Gilder
James Michener
Donald Sutherland
Oriana Fallaci
Henry Fonda
George Carlin
Lech Walesa
Patricia Hearst
Ed Koch
Billy Joel
Sugar Ray Leonard
Bette Davis
Akio Morita
Cheech and Chong

Robin Williams
Luciano Pavarotti
Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards
Dudley Moore
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Sam Donaldson
Paul Newman
Ansel Adams
Stephen King
Earl Weaver
Ted Turner
The Sandinistas
Kenny Rogers
Tom Selleck
Dan Rather
Paul Simon
Moses Malone
Joan Collins
Calvin Klein
Jesse Jackson
Walid Jumblatt
Bobby Knight

Shirley MacLaine
David Letterman
Jose Napoleon Duarte
Paul and Linda McCartney
Goldie Hawn
Steven Jobs
Wayne Gretzky
Boy George
Sparky Anderson
Rob Reiner
Fidel Castro
John Huston
John De Lorean
Sting
Bill Cosby
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Michael Douglas
Sally Field
Jeffrey McDonald
Kathleen Turner
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Arthur C. Clarke
Jackie Gleason
Carl Bernstein
Phil Collins
Joan Rivers
Bryant Gumbel

Don Johnson
Mickey Rourke
Lionel Richie
Louis Rukeyser
Prince Norodom Sihanouk
Whoopi Goldberg
Wade Boggs
Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos
John Sculley
General Richard II
Daniel Ortega
Gore Vidal
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Oliver Stone
Billy Crystal
Tom Clancy
Don King
Chevy Chase
Paul Hogan
Harvey Fierstein
Yasir Arafat
Roger Craig
Bruce Willis
Cher

Robert De Niro
Bob Woodard
Tom Hanks
Susan Sarandon
Edward James Olmos
Barry Diller
John Cougar Mellencamp
Keith Hernandez
Keith Richards
Garry Kasparov
Candice Bergen

Tom Cruise
Eddy Murphy
Donald Trump
Stephen Hawking
Dave Berry
Quincy Jones
Larry King
Rickey Henderson
SHintaro Ishihara
Leona Hlmsley
Jay Leno
Lee Iacocca
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
M. Scott Peck
Martin Scorsese
Robert McNeil and Jim Lhrer
Spike Lee
Daryl Gates
Douglas Wilder
Robert Maxwell
Sean Penn
Carl Segan

Robin Williams
Liz Smith
Lorne Micheals
Jonathon Kozol
Micheal Jordan
Ralph Nader
Micheal Keaton
Derek Humphry
Betty Friedan
Sister Souljah
William Safire
Sharon Stone
Steve Martin
Danny Devito
Anne Rice
Frank Zappa
Charles Barkley
Tom and Roseanne Arnold
Barry Bonds

Dan Akroyd
Larry Kramer
Jerry Seinfeld
Joyce Carol Oates
Rush Limbaugh
David Letterman
Pete Townshend
Anthony Hopkins
Howard Stern
Ron Howard
Garth Brooks
Bill Gates
Dion Sanders
David Geffen
Jerry Jones
Christian Slater
Gary Shandling

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Tim Robbins
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
David Mamet
Camille Paglia
Joyce Elders
Mel Gibson
Berry Gordy
Cindy Crawford
Snoop Doggy Dog
Harvey Keitel
George Foreman
Johnny Depp
Bruce Willis

-THEEK SAKE!

[Talkin2Phil]

Originally Posted by big whoppa

Has anyone ever actually "read" Playboy??

I try, but the pages are stuck together.

[kvrdave]

I plan on reading the articles once I become impotent as well.

[Supermallet]

As well as bald?

[dx23]

The problem with Playboy has to do more with them not catching up with the new trends and sticking to the 80's glamour and ideas. Has anyone seen recently a DVD for the Centerfolds? They have all the production values of the 80's including the look and sound of them. If you see Playboy through the decades, you'll see a reflection of the current era except for all the magazines from 1998 till now. They have also use technology for the worse, airbrushing already beautiful women and making them look like plastic barbie dolls. As long as Playboy keeps living in the past, then they are not going to survive past Hugh Hefner.

[al_bundy]

Hefner owns something like 80% of the stock, that's all you need to know about the company's problems.

[Charlie Goose]

I don't have $300 million.

[tommyp007]

Originally Posted by KillerCannibal

Once Hef dies, so will the mag. Who the hell even reads Playboy these days?

Subscriber for over 20 years.

[al_bundy]

these days it's like Maxim, Stuff or FHM that you can't read in public