Hefner Sparks Bidding War for Playboy

Founder Hugh Hefner wants to take Playboy private, and he mounted a bid today that values the struggling company at $185 million, Bloomberg reports. Playboy Enterprises stock closed up almost 41% and attracted interest from another party—but who would want a conglomerate that's lost $20 million in just 2 years in a world with porn available on practically every desktop? Penthouse, of course.

"We always knew it would be a good fit," the CEO of FriendFinder, which owns the Penthouse brand and is readying a formal bid, tells the Chicago Tribune. It won't be easy, because Hefner owns 69.5% percent of Playboy’s Class A stock and has said he's not interested in a third-party sale. Reassuringly, FriendFinder wouldn't evict Hef from the Playboy mansion should its attempt succeed: "Our interest is mostly the digital assets,” the CEO said. “We have no desire to throw him out."
(More Playboy Enterprises stories.)