Playboy for Sale? For $300 Million, Perhaps

The New York Post's magazine columnist Keith Kelly reports that the Playboy empire "is quietly being shopped around for $300 million," but there haven't yet been any takers. If Kelly's report (based on his industry sources) is true, then earlier suggestions that all that sale talk wasn't real was itself not real.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. interim Chair/CEO Jerome Kern hasn't, of course, contacted me to buy the company (an oversight, I'm sure) (though, come to think of it, he also didn't contact me about the search for a permanent replacement for former Chair/CEO Christie Hefner; hmmmm...), but there's got to be a buyer out there somewhere for this. (Remember all the interest in acquiring Penthouse from bankruptcy, and that company was a basket case? Playboy's not.) My guess is that the challenge will be finding a buyer or investor who can work the ownership and editorial needs of Hugh Hefner, who still owns most of the voting shares (and whom Kelly says recently lamented taking his company public in the 1970s as his biggest regret).

Update: Playboy spokesperson denies the company's being shopped around, according to Crain's Chicago Business. So are Keith Kelly's sources full of hot air or is Playboy trying to keep it ultra-quiet?

Playboy for Sale? Not so Fast

So I was correct in suspecting it was just a "since you asked" response and not a move to begin bidding. The Washington Post reports that the company says, well, it's always open to acquisition interest; just nothing's been enough to interest them yet.

Personally, I hope they don't sell, or at least don't sell to the typical MBA-run brand maximization and strategic planning emulsifier (I ran out of business jargon words) who would just as easily turn the magazine into a pornographic rag as turn it into a copy of Esquire. I think Playboy the magazine is on the right track these past few years, and if the new editor's stated desires are followed through, then it'll continue to be a magazine to be proud of.

The Post article notes that people hoping for big change were heartened by the recent exit of CEO Christie Hefner, but now the big "obstacle" that remains is founder/editor Hugh Hefner. (Audio of Christie Hefner addressing The Commonwealth Club.)

Frankly, I'd put more store in the decisions of the man who created a miracle magazine and expanded it into a worldwide brand and movement and symbol of quality than I would trust the trading-desk opinions of some business geek who sees this as another company that can be bought and flipped or torn apart and sold for scrap. But then, I'm a magazine person, so my bias is obvious.

Playboy for Sale?

No, this isn't a Playboy-focused blog, though it may seem like it lately. Just a lot of HefCo-related news these days.
That includes this whopper. Everybody's reporting awful news in the magazine industry, so the fact that Playboy reported a very bad quarter ($156.1 million) isn't a surprise. What was surprising was the comment that the company would consider a sale and/or a big change in its flagship magazine. According to Reuters, "The company, which posted a net loss in each quarter of 2008, also said it would be open to discussions about an outright sale of the company, or changes in the strategic direction of the flagship Playboy Magazine."
Okay, Folio: says the sale option was announced in response to a question from someone on the conference call with the company's CEO, Jerome Kern. So it isn't quite like they raised the for-sale flag on their own. But it's a sign that nothing seems to be off the table.
Just when I thought they were on the right track with the mag. This recession is getting vurry, vurry ugly.
I could have much fun, being a big magazine geek, expounding on what I'd do if I could buy Playboy Enterprises, but I'll hold back. For now. Wait until a rainy day with no other magazine news to report.