Hugh Hefner’s son wants to buy Playboy for $100 million

Hugh Hefner’s youngest son is offering to buy the Playboy brand for $100 million, according to a report.

Cooper Hefner, 33, told The Wall Street Journal that he and a group of investors presented an offer to Playboy Group that would see the brand back in family ownership more than seven decades after it was founded by his late father.

“It’s a big American company and a big American brand, outside of my personal connection to it,” Hefner, whose mother is former Playmate and Hugh Hefner’s second wife, Kimberley Conrad, told The Journal.

Hefner complained that the company “has been managed into a possible state of non-existence”.

As part of the proposed deal, Hefner and his investment firm, Hefner Capital, will buy back the Playboy brand and run the intellectual property, while other parts of the business will continue to operate as a separate entity with one name. new.

The newly carved out entity would also take a 10% ownership stake in a Hefner-run Playboy.

Hefner, whose group of investors includes a hedge fund and one of Playboy’s former licensing partners, told The Journal that he would take on the role of CEO.

Playboy Group, whose stock was as high as $50 a share in spring 2021, was trading at less than $1 a share on Monday. Its market value was about 50 million dollars.

In 2021, it went public through a special takeover company. But the firm has been losing money and is currently carrying more than $200 million in debt.

A year ago, she discontinued publication of her magazine, ending a nearly seven-decade run on newsstands that began in 1953 with a debut issue featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Hugh Hefner founded the magazine and built the brand. In the 1970s, Playboy had a monthly circulation of 7 million.

But it ran into trouble in the 1980s with competition from Penthouse and Hustler—magazines that had much sharper photos—and Playboy’s social influence waned significantly in the 21st century.

Shrinking advertising revenue as well as pornography available online made Playboy obsolete.

Hugh Hefner died in 2017 at the age of 91. He left behind four children including Cooper Hefner, who all sold their shares in the company.

Cooper Hefner told The Journal that the brand has been mismanaged.

“It’s Playboy going into businesses they’ve never operated before,” he said, adding that the products “are not resonating at all with consumers, customers or fans.”

“And the decline of the business and the importance of the brand — in terms of not being talked about today — is a direct reflection of that.”