Penthouse publisher hires adviser to pursue Playboy
FriendFinder Networks, the owner of adult magazine Penthouse, has hired a financial adviser as it prepares to counter Hugh Hefner’s bid to buy Playboy Enterprises.
FriendFinder, an internet-based social networking and multimedia entertainment firm, yesterday said it has retained Imperial Capital.
On Monday FriendFinder said that Hefner’s offer of $5.50 in cash for each of the shares he doesn’t already own “dramatically” undervalues Playboy. The bid by Hefner, 84, who founded Playboy and currently owns around 70 per cent of Class A common stock and 28 per cent of Class B, values Playboy at $185m (£120m).
The offers for Playboy come as the company struggles with a drop in advertising revenue and a decline in readership at its iconic flagship magazine.
Hefner said earlier this week he had already secured a partnership agreement for the deal with Rizvi Traverse Management, which had already been in contact with major lenders about financing.
The octogenarian mogul has advised Playboy’s board he will not contemplate a sale or merger of the company or entering into discussions with any other partners, out of concern for “the Playboy brand, the editorial direction of the magazine and Playboy’s legacy.”
Playboy and its famous bunny logo were set up by Hefner in 1953 and the company listed in New York in the early 1970s.