Playboy board to evaluate Hugh Hefner buyout bid

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With two offers to buy the company on the table, the board of directors at Playboy Enterprises is moving forward with the offer from founder Hugh Hefner to buy out all other shareholders for $5.50 per share. The other bid appears to be going nowhere.


That second bid from FriendFinder Networks is higher than the Hefner offer, valuing the company’s total equity at $210 million, as opposed to $185 million under Hefner’s offer. However, Hef has voting control of the company and no buyout is possible without his support – and thus far FriendFinder has not succeeded in its efforts to get him onboard with its offer.

Playboy’s board announced that a special committee had been formed, consisting of Sol Rosenthal and Shing Tao, to evaluate the Hefner bid. Rosenthal is a Counsel in the LA office of Arnold & Porter, an international law firm, and Tao is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Pacific Star Partners, a private investment group.  

The announcement from the board cautioned that there is no assurance that any deal will be agreed to or consummated.