Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine, founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with a presence in nearly every medium. Playboy is one of the world's best known brands. In addition to the flagship magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide.

The magazine has a long history of publishing short stories by notable novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, P. G. Wodehouse, and Margaret Atwood. Playboy features monthly interviews of notable public figures, such as artists, architects, economists, composers, conductors, film directors, journalists, novelists, playwrights, religious figures, politicians, athletes and race car drivers. The magazine throughout its history has expressed a libertarian outlook on political and social issues.

Playboy History,

Playboy's original title was to be Stag Party, but an unrelated outdoor magazine, Stag, contacted Hefner and informed him that they would protect their trademark if he were to launch his magazine with that name. Hefner and co-founder and executive vice-president Eldon Sellers met to seek a new name. Sellers, whose mother had worked for the Chicago sales office of the short-lived Playboy Automobile Company, suggested "Playboy."

The first issue, in December 1953, was undated, as Hefner was unsure there would be a second. He produced it in his Hyde Park kitchen. The first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, although the picture used originally was taken for a calendar rather than for Playboy. The first issue sold out in weeks. Known circulation was 53,991. The cover price was 50¢. Copies of the first issue in mint to near mint condition sold for over $5,000 in 2002. The novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, was also serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of Playboy magazine.

The logo, the stylized profile of a rabbit wearing a tuxedo bow tie, was originally designed by art designer Art Paul for the second issue to be used as an endnote, but was adopted as the official logo, and has appeared ever since.A running joke in the magazine involves hiding the logo somewhere in the cover art or photograph. Hefner said he chose the rabbit for its "humorous sexual connotation," and because the image was "frisky and playful."

An urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month because of markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979 (except for a six month gap in 1976), the "P" in Playboy had stars printed in or around the letter. The legend stated that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the number of times that Hefner had slept with her, or how good she was in bed. The stars, between zero and twelve, actually indicated the domestic or international advertising region for that printing.

The Editorial Board of Playboy in 1970. Back, left to right: Robie Macauley, Nat Lehrman, Richard M. Koff, Murray Fisher, Arthur Kretchmer; front: Sheldon Wax, Auguste Comte Spectorsky, Jack Kessie.

From 1966 to 1976 Robie Macauley was the Fiction Editor at Playboy. During this period the magazine published fiction by Saul Bellow, Sean O'Faolain, John Updike, James Dickey, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, Joyce Carol Oates, Vladimir Nabokov, Michael Crichton, John LeCarre, Irwin Shaw, Arthur Koestler, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Bernard Malamud, John Irving, Anne Sexton, Nadine Gordimer, Kurt Vonnegut and J. P. Donleavy, as well as poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Macauley also contributed all of the popular Ribald Classics series published between January 1978 and March 1984.

Since reaching its peak in the 1970s, Playboy has seen a decline in circulation and cultural relevance because of competition in the field it founded — first from Penthouse, Oui (which was published as a spin-off of Playboy) and Gallery in the 1970s; later from pornographic videos; and more recently from lad mags such as Maxim, FHM, and Stuff. In response, Playboy has attempted to re-assert its hold on the 18–35 male demographic through slight changes to content and focusing on issues and personalities more appropriate to its audience — such as hip-hop artists being featured in the "Playboy Interview".

Christie Hefner, daughter of the founder Hugh Hefner, joined Playboy in 1975 and became head of the company in 1988. She announced in December 2008 that she would be stepping down from leading the company, effective in January 2009, and said that the election of Barack Obama as the next President had inspired her to give more time to charitable work, and that the decision to step down was her own. “Just as this country is embracing change in the form of new leadership, I have decided that now is the time to make changes in my own life as well,” she said.

The magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary with the January 2004 issue. Celebrations were held at Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, and Moscow during the year to commemorate this event.

The magazine runs several annual features and ratings. One of the most popular is its annual ranking of the top "party schools" among all U.S. universities and colleges. For 2009, the magazine used five considerations: bikini, brains, campus, sex and sports in the development of its list. The top ranked party school by Playboy for 2009 was the University of Miami.

In June 2009, the magazine reduced its publication schedule to 11 issues per year, with a combined July/August issue and on August 11, 2009, London's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Hugh Hefner had sold his English Manor house (next door to the famous Playboy Mansion) for $18 m ($10 m less than the reported asking price) to a Daren Metropoulos and that due to significant losses in the company's value (down from $1billion in 2000 to $84mil in 2009) the Playboy publishing empire is up for sale for $300 m. In December 2009, they further reduced the publication schedule to 10 issues per year, with a combined January/February issue.

On July 12, 2010, Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced Hefner's $5.50 per share offer ($122.5 milion based on shares outstanding on April 30 and the closing price on July 9) to buy the portion of the company he does not already own and take the company private with the help of Rizvi Traverse Management LLC. The company derives much of its income from licensing rather than the magazine. On July 15, Penthouse owner FriendFinder Networks Inc. offered $210 million (the company is valued at $185 million), though Hefner, who already owns 70 percent of voting stock, does not want to sell.,

The Playboy Interview,

Besides its centerfold, a major part of Playboy for much of its existence has been the Playboy Interview, an extensive (usually several thousand-word) discussion between a notable individual and an interviewer (historian Alex Haley, for example, served as a Playboy interviewer on a few occasions; one of his interviews was with Martin Luther King Jr.; he also interviewed Malcolm X, then coauthored his autobiography). One of the magazine's most notable interviews was a discussion with then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in the November 1976 issue in which he stated "I've committed adultery in my heart many times." David Sheff's interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono appeared in the January 1981 issue, which was on newsstands at the time of Lennon's murder; the interview was later published in book format.

Another interview type section, entitled "20Q" (a play on the game of Twenty Questions), was added in October 1978. Cheryl Tiegs was the first interviewee for the section.,

Playboy Circulation,

Image of Lena Soderberg used in many image processing experiments.

The best-selling Playboy edition was the November 1972 edition, which sold 7,161,561 copies. One-quarter of all American college men were buying the magazine every month. On the cover was model Pam Rawlings, photographed by Rowland Scherman.

Perhaps coincidentally, a cropped image of the issue's centerfold (which featured Lena Soderberg) became a de facto standard image for testing image processing algorithms. It is known simply as the "Lenna" (also "Lena") image in that field.

Playboy is still the largest selling "men's magazine", selling about 2.6 million a month in the U.S.

In 1970, Playboy became the first gentleman's magazine to be printed in braille.

Bans on the sale of Playboy

This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2008)

In many parts of Asia, including India, mainland China, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei, sale and distribution of Playboy is banned. In addition, sale and distribution is banned in almost all Muslim countries (except Turkey) in Asia and Africa, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. However, it is sold in Hong Kong. In Japan, where genitals of models cannot be shown, a separate edition is published under license by Shueisha.

An Indonesian edition was launched in April 2006, but controversy started before the first issue. Though the publisher said the content of the Indonesian edition will be different from the original edition, the government was tried to ban it by using anti-pornography rules. (The Indonesian government cannot ban any medium.) A Muslim organization, the Islamic Defenders Front (IDF), opposed Playboy on the grounds of pornography. On April 12, about 150 IDF members clashed with police and stoned the editorial offices. Despite this, the edition quickly sold out. On April 6, 2007 the chief judge of the case dismissed the charges because they had been incorrectly filed.

In 1986, the American convenience store chain 7-Eleven removed the magazine. The store returned Playboy to its shelves in late 2003. 7-Eleven had also been selling Penthouse and other similar magazines before the ban.

In 1995 - after a 36 year ban - Playboy was returned to shelves in Ireland. Many women's groups in the country asked for the ban to remain in place.

In bookstores throughout the world, it is common for Playboy, as well as other adult publications, to be put on a higher shelf than other magazines, keeping them out of the reach of children. They are also often wrapped in opaque plastic bags so as to not reveal the cover. Prior to the late 1980s, Playboy was usually covered with a heavy paper wrapping, similar to paper bags commonly found in grocery stores, with the famous bunny head logo imprinted in black on both sides; however, up to and into the 1970s in the United States, mailed issues using the "plain brown wrapper" did not indicate the Playboy name or logo. The magazine could be slid in and out of the wrapper for viewing, as opposed to the modern sealed plastic bags.

Playboy was not sold in the state of Queensland, Australia during 2004 and 2005 but returned as of 2006. Due to declining sales, the last Australian edition of Playboy was the January 2000 issue.

Playboy Litigation,

On the January 14, 2004, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Playboy Enterprises Inc.'s (PEI) trademark terms "Playboy" and "Playmate" should be protected in the situation where a user typing "Playboy" or "Playmate" in a browser search was instead shown advertisements of companies that competed with PEI. (The decision reversed an earlier district court ruling.) The suit started on April 15, 1999, when Playboy sued Excite Inc. and Netscape for trademark infringement.

Read More: Penthouse (magazine) and Hugh Hefner

Photographers

Many notable photographers have contributed to Playboy, including Ken Marcus,Richard Fegley,Arny Freytag, Ron Harris, Tom Kelley, David Mecey,Russ Meyer, Pompeo Posar, Suze Randall, Herb Ritts,Stephen Wayda, Sam Wu, Mario Casilli, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton,and Bunny Yeager.,

Playboy Celebrities,

For a full listing, please see List of people in Playboy 1953–1959, 1960–1969, 1970–1979, 1980–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2009, 2010–2019.

Many celebrities (singers, actresses, models, etc.) have posed for Playboy over the years. This list is only a small portion of those who have posed. Some of them are:,

Playboy Film,

* Marilyn Monroe (December 1953) (Never actually posed for Playboy itself)

* Jayne Mansfield (February 1955)

* Mara Corday (October 1958)

* Ursula Andress (June 1965)

* Carol Lynley (March 1965)

* Kim Basinger (February 1983)

* Janet Jones (March 1987)

* Drew Barrymore (January 1995)

* Daryl Hannah (November 2003)

* Denise Richards (December 2004),

Playboy Music:,

* LaToya Jackson (March 1989/Nov 1991)

* Fem2fem (December 1993)

* Nancy Sinatra (May 1995)

* Samantha Fox (October 1996)

* Linda Brava (April 1998)

* Belinda Carlisle (August 2001)

* Tiffany (April 2002)

* Carnie Wilson (August 2003)

* Deborah Gibson (March 2005)

* Willa Ford (March 2006),

Playboy Sport:,

* Svetlana Khorkina (November 1997 Russian edition)

* Katarina Witt (December 1998)

* Tanja Szewczenko (April 1999 German Edition)

* Joanie Laurer (November 2000 and January 2002)

* Gabrielle Reece (January 2001)

* Kiana Tom (May 2002)

* Torrie Wilson (May 2003 and March 2004

* Amy Acuff (September 2004)

* Amanda Beard (July 2007)

* Ashley Harkleroad (August 2008),

Playboy Television:,

* Linda Evans (July 1971)

* Suzanne Somers (February 1980 and December 1984)

* Dana Plato (June 1989)

* Shannen Doherty (March 1994 and December 2003)

* Farrah Fawcett (December 1995 and July 1997)

* Women of Baywatch (June 1998)

* Claudia Christian (October 1999)

* Shari Belafonte (September 2000)

* Brooke Burke (May 2001 and November 2004)

* Susie Feldman (August 2008),

Playboy International editions,

This map shows the countries where Playboy is published. The dark pink indicates the countries where regional editions of the magazine are produced today and the lighter pink indicates the countries where regional editions of Playboy were once published.

(starting at the accompanying date, or during the accompanying date range)

* Argentina (1985–1995, 2006–),Australia (1979–2000),Brazil (1975–),Bulgaria (2002–),Colombia (2008–),Croatia (1997–),Czech Republic (1991–),Estonia (2007–),France (1973–),Georgia (2007–2009),Germany (1972–),Greece (1985–),

Hong Kong (1986–1993), Hungary (1989–1993, 1999–),Indonesia (2006–2007),

 Italy (1972–2003, 2008-),Japan (1975–),Latvia (2010-),Lithuania (2008-),

Macedonia (2010- ),Mexico (1976–1998, 2002–),Netherlands (1983–),

Norway (1998–1999),Philippines (2008-),Poland (1992–),Portugal (2009-),

Romania (1999–),Russia (1995–),Serbia (2004–),Slovakia (1997–2002, 2005–),

Slovenia (2001–),South Africa (1993–1996),Spain (1978–),Sweden (1998–1999), Taiwan (1990–2003),Turkey (1986–1995),Ukraine (2005–),

United States (1953–),Venezuela (2006–),

Playboy Other editions,

The success of Playboy magazine has led PEI to market other versions of the magazine, the Special Editions (formerly called News Stand Specials), such as Playboy's College Girls and Playboy's Book of Lingerie, as well as the Playboy video collection.

The growth of the Internet prompted the magazine to develop an official web presence called Playboy Online or Playboy.com, which is the official website for Playboy Enterprises, and an online companion to Playboy magazine. The site has been available online since 1994. As part of the online presence, Playboy developed a pay web site called the Playboy Cyber Club in 1995 which features online chats, additional pictorials, videos of Playmates and Playboy Cyber Girls that are not featured in the magazine. Archives of past Playboy articles and interviews are also included. In September 2005, Playboy launched the online edition of the magazine Playboy Digital.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has published a Braille edition of Playboy since 1970. The Braille version includes all the written words in the non-Braille magazine, but no pictorial representations. Congress cut off funding for the Braille magazine translation in 1985, but U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan reversed the decision on First Amendment grounds.

In 2010 Playboy introduced "The Smoking Jacket", a safe-for-work website designed to appeal to young men, while avoiding nude images or key words that would cause the site to be filtered or otherwise prohibited in the workplace.

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(source:wikipedia)

Penthouse (magazine)

Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and soft-core pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International Inc. prior to chapter 11 restructuring. Although Guccione was American, the magazine was founded in 1965 in the United Kingdom, but beginning in September 1969 was sold in the United States as well. At the height of his success, Guccione, who died in 2010, was considered to be one of the richest men in the United States. He was once listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people (982). An April 2002 New York Times article reported Guccione as saying that Penthouse grossed $3.5 billion to $4 billion over the 30-year life of the company, with net income of almost half a billion dollars.

Read More: PlayBoy and Hugh Hefner

Innovations

For many years, Penthouse fell between Playboy and Hustler in its explicitness and general attitude toward sexual depictions, with Playboy being visually softer and less focused on female genitals and with Hustler going for a raunchier look and content often consisting of toilet humor. Almost from the start, Penthouse pictorials showed female genitalia and pubic hair when this was considered by many to be obscene.

Up until 1973, the depiction of female genitalia offered fuzzy portrayals of the pudenda, without the inner labia parted, after which sharper views of the vulva were shown.

Simulated sex, but not penetration or male genitalia, followed; then, several years later, male genitalia, including erections, could be seen. In addition, Penthouse attempted to maintain some level of reading content, although usually of a more sexually oriented nature than Playboy.

During the 1970s and 80's and into the early 90's Penthouse was often regarded as the main rival against Playboy in terms of circulation and popularity. (There were a few times during the 70's and 80's where Penthouse was even ahead of Playboy for subscriptions and sales.)

Move from softcore to hardcore pictorials and back

In 1998 Penthouse decided to change its format and began featuring sexually explicit pictures (i.e., actual oral, vaginal, and anal penetration), beginning with photos from the famed Stolen Honeymoon sex tape featuring Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. It also began to regularly feature pictorials of female models urinating, which, until then, had been considered a defining limit of illegal obscenity as distinguished from legal pornography.

A different approach to restoring sales was attempted by the UK version of the magazine in 1997. Under the editorship of Tom Hilditch, the magazine was rebranded as PH.UK and relaunched as middle-shelf "adult magazine for grown-ups". Fashion photographers (such as Corinne Day of The Face magazine) were hired to produce images that merged sex and fashion. The magazine's editorial content included celebrity interviews and tackled issues of sexual politics. The experiment attracted a great deal of press interest but failed to generate a significant increase in sales. PH.UK closed in late 1998.

The new owners (see below) significantly softened the content of the magazine starting with the January 2005 issue. Penthouse no longer showed male genitalia, real or simulated male-female sex, or any form of explicit hardcore content. (It does still feature female-female simulated sex, at least on occasion.) While this change allowed the return of a limited number of mainstream advertisers to the magazine, it has not significantly raised the number of subscribers; total circulation is still below 350,000. (Many insiders feel that the softening of content may have hurt the magazine.

Financial history

Penthouse’s parent company became General Media Inc in 1993 in connection with the company going public in December 21, 1993, in an $85 million United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered bond offering. Jefferies and Company led the junk bond offering (Jefferies is a leading middle-market investment bank listed on the New York Stock Exchange). The main buyer of the bonds was the $40 billion MacKay Shields division of the venerable $143 billion New York Life insurance company.

The collateral for the bonds was primarily the registered trademarks of the company and other intellectual property, since the “Penthouse” brand is a worldwide recognized brand and would be difficult and expensive to recreate.

In 1997, Cerberus Capital Management began acquiring the General Media bonds in the open market. Cerberus is one of the largest hedge funds in the United States, with a reported $18 billion under management.

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In an effort to raise cash and to reduce debt, Penthouse sold its portfolio of several automotive magazine titles in 1999 for $33 million cash to Peterson Automotive, the national automotive-publishing group. While these titles were successful, it is widely reported that the science and health magazines Omni and Longevity cost Penthouse almost $100 million, contributing to its eventual financial troubles.

Guccione and his trust remained the sole shareholder of General Media, according to SEC filings, despite the bondholder obligations. In October 2002, he agreed to take on his first minority shareholders in 37 years. Affiliates of Jason Galanis and Charles Samel acquired 15% of the company, according to SEC filings (affiliates later acquiring 100% in November 2003, according to filings). In October, 2002, General Media became a wholly owned subsidiary of Penthouse International (f/k/a American Pulp).

In May 2007, the SEC settled a suit brought against Galanis and Samel for alleged fraud and financial misreporting. In the settlement, no guilt was admitted, while the settlement resolves the SEC's accusations that General Media used an unauthorized electronic signature of Bob Guccione, the magazine's former chief executive officer, to meet Sarbanes-Oxley-law certification requirements in its 2003 first-quarter report.

[edit]Bankruptcy

Per SEC filings, General Media defaulted on a $1.3 million payment on its $50 million in outstanding bonds. As a result, the bondholders had a right to take control of the company unless General Media sought protection under the federal bankruptcy laws.

On August 12, 2003, General Media, the parent company of the magazine, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Immediately upon filing, Cerberus Capital management entered into a $5 million debtor-in-possession credit line with General Media to provide General Media working capital. In October 2003, it was announced that Penthouse magazine was being put up for sale as part of a deal with its creditors. On November 13, 2004, Guccione resigned as Chairman and CEO of Penthouse International, the parent of General Media.

General Media later filed a plan of reorganization that ceded control to the bondholders, but then withdrew this plan and filed a new plan that would have resulted in the equity holders maintaining control of the company. Also, the parties acquired the Guccione mansion from the foreclosing lenders and reached agreement with Guccione to lease him the home for $1 per year for the rest of his life.

Given the enormous recognition for the Penthouse brand, financier Marc H. Bell, a high-net-worth South-Florida real-estate developer and founder of the Globix Corporation, a once-public Internet-hosting company, formed a partnership for the acquisition, called it PET Capital Partners (as in, "pet of the month") then led his team in amassing 89 percent of the magazine's $50 million in bond obligations. "We didn't buy the company, we bought the debt," says Bell.

The bankruptcy challenges between the bondholders and the shareholders continued through four official plans of reorganization and substantial litigation. Ultimately, the bondholder plan of PET Capital Partner group was confirmed by the Court. However, the plan could not close without the settlement of the outstanding litigation between the parties.

On September 28, 2004, the Molina parties agreed to dismiss their claims and consent to the transaction. According to SEC filings, simultaneously Care Concepts paid PET Capital Partners $16.45 million in cash for 39.3% of Penthouse Media Group. Penthouse International paid an additional $1,000,000. Molina released his claims in consideration for return of a $10 million promissory note due to PET Capital Partners.

On October 4, 2004, General Media emerged from bankruptcy and was renamed the Penthouse Media Group. It is now owned by three investors: Bell, Daniel Staton, a South-Florida investor with diverse investment properties, ranging from Broadway shows (e.g. Jersey Boys, Hairspray, and August: Osage County)to Build-a-Bear stores, and a member of the board of directors of Public Storage, Inc., (NYSE: PSA), and Absolute Capital Management, run by Florian Homm, a German hedge-fund manager, who lives on the Spanish island of Majorca. Bell was reportedly solicited for capital by an officer of General Media but elected to buy the bonds and attempt to foreclose.Bell was quoted in South Florida CEO Magazine in June 2004 as saying "They were in bankruptcy, their bonds were trading for pennies and nobody wanted the company," says Bell. "It was going to be liquidated and we figured it was a great buy.

In August 2005, PET Capital Partners completed a financing with each of Post Advisory, Canyon Capital, and Satellite for $40 million. According to SEC-filed documents dated August 31, 2005, signed by Marc Bell as President, Jefferies and Company represented Penthouse in the private placement of new debt. According to the filing, payments were made to directors and officers of $14,502,901 and “payments to others” were $11,710,965.38, leaving the company with working capital of $11,441,218.59.

Hedge-funds role

Because of the established brand, Guccione was attractive to leading institutional investors, including the country's largest fund investors. Beginning in 1997, Cerberus Capital Management acquired interests in the bonds of Guccione’s General Media, Inc. In addition, Elliot Associates was a lender to Guccione personally and held a $17 million mortgage on his mansion. Later after Guccione sought protection in bankruptcy, a European hedge fund called Absolute Capital Management—based in Majorca, Spain, and London—acquired the bonds from Cerberus. Absolute is a publicly traded hedge fund with $2.1 billion under management. Guccione was able to pay Elliot Associates with money from Galanis and Laurus Funds. As part of the bankruptcy restructuring, shareholders of Penthouse arranged additional institutional financing in order to fund a competing plan or reorganization that would preserve their interests as shareholders. Post Advisory Group, a $9.0 billion hedge fund owned by the insurance company Principal Financial Group, formally committed in writing on March 4, 2004 to $30 million to General Media, along with $38 million pledged from the Molina family. Though Post Advisory did not fund the above plan, since it was not confirmed by the Court, after reorganization bankruptcy was completed, Post Advisory Group, Canyon Capital, and Satellite collectively invested $40 million into the reorganized General Media, now called Penthouse Media Group. Today, the three hedge funds own a first mortgage on all of the assets of Penthouse. Laurus has reportedly sold the mansion for $59 million in late 2006. Galanis reportedly introduced and structured the initial Post Advisory transaction, the Laurus/Alexandre transaction and the Molina investment in order to restructure the company and preserve the common stock. Cerberus first acquired Guccione's debt in 1997 when the hedge fund purchased personally guaranteed debt owed by Guccione in connection with his ill-fated Atlantic City casino venture that cost him an estimated $140 million. Guccione eventually borrowed the money from Elliot and others to pay Cerberus in full, but went further in debt as a result.

Notwithstanding the Penthouse/Guccione financial issues, General Media had had a positive cash flow for the prior 10 years, according to filings made with the SEC. However, as it paid over $8 million in interest on the bonds and $4.5 million to pay Guccione's living expenses,salary, and upkeep on his mansion, the company became cash-strapped.

Acquisitions

In December 2007, PMGI announced the purchase of Various, Inc. for $500 million.Various operates a stable of social networking sites, including AdultFriendFinder. Penthouse Media Group was later renamed FriendFinder Networks.

On 15 July 2010, FriendFinder Networks Inc. offered $210 million for Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (the company is valued at $185 million), though Hugh Hefner, who already owns 70 percent of voting stock, does not want to sell.

Initial Public Offerings

In the First Quarter of 2008, shortly after renaming itself FriendFinder Networks, the company announced plans for an initial public offering of stock to raise equity capital . According to the S-1 document the company filed in December 2008, of the company's $691 million in financial liabilities, $411 million had been reclassified from long-term to short-term because of the company's "failure to comply with certain covenants and restrictions in the agreements governing our 2005 Notes and 2006 Notes and our subsidiary's First Lien Senior Secured Notes, Second Lien Subordinated Secured Notes and Subordinated Convertible Notes and for which waivers had not been obtained." Therefore, FriendFinder Networks had $420.1 million that was immediately due and only $43.3 million in cash on hand. This fact contributed to FFN seeking to go public to ameliorate its short-term debt load. However, this plan never came to fruition with the offering never reaching the market.

As of January 17, 2010, according to Crain's New York, FriendFinder Networks has a negative net worth equal to $118 million, $32 million in cash on hand and $650 million in liabilities. Additionally, the company has indicated that it lacks existing cash or cash from operations to repay a $44.5 million debt that comes due July 31. It has cautioned that, unless it can repay or restructure its obligation, it will face “a material deficiency in our short term liquidity.” With these shortfalls in mind, the company again announced an intention to make an initial public offering of stock, representing a 49% stake in the company, and plans to use the proceeds to pay down its debt, and become listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The contemplated public offering, which was scheduled to reach the market on January 27, 2010 was delayed by FFN.

On February 5, 2010, FFN announced its intention to indefinitely delay its contemplated IPO until such time as market conditions improve. The company's latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission  paints a tenuous picture of the company with statements like, "Our ability to keep pace with technological developments is uncertain," and "We have a history of significant operating losses and we may incur additional net losses in the future, which have had and may continue to have material consequences to our business," and "Because of our adult content, companies providing products and services on which we rely may refuse to do business with us," and "We have never generated significant revenue from internet advertising and may not be able to in the future and a failure to compete effectively against other internet advertising companies could result in lost customers or could adversely affect our business and results of operations." Based on the previously mentioned SEC filing, long-tenured, West Coast Editor for Barron's, Eric J. Savitz, wondered, "if the market conditions will ever improve enough to allow FriendFinder to go public."

Penthouse Mobile and Penthouse HDTV for cell phones

Since January 2003, Penthouse International has been working with FCC, DISA and various agencies as well as several academic universities to offer Penthouse HDTV on cell phones using regular the United States TV broadcaster and Internet Service Providers.

Controversies

Lawsuit over La Costa Spa & Resort article

In March, 1975, Penthouse published an article headlined "La Costa: The Hundred-Million-Dollar Resort with Criminal Clientele," written by Jeff Gerth and Lowell Bergman. The article indicated that the spa was developed by Mervyn Adelson and Irwin Molasky using loans from the Teamster's Pension Fund and that the resort was a playground for organized crime figures. The owners, along with two officials of the resort, Morris B. Moe Dalitz and Allard Roen, filed a libel lawsuit for $522 million against the magazine and the writers. In 1982, a jury absolved the magazine of any liability against the lawsuit from the owners. The plaintiffs appealed, but in December 1985, before a new trial could begin, the two sides settled. Penthouse issued a statement that they did not mean to imply that Adelson and Molaskey are or were members of organized crime. In turn the plaintiffs issued a statement lauding Penthouse publisher Guccione and his magazine for their "personal and professional awards."

Traci Lords

The September 1984 issue of Penthouse magazine would eventually become controversial because of its centerfold, Traci Lords. Lords posed nude for this issue at the beginning of her career as an adult film star. It was later revealed that Lords was underage throughout most of her career in pornography and was only 15 when she posed for Penthouse.

International versions

As of October 2010

Australian edition

Bulgarian edition

Dutch edition

German edition

Greek edition

Hungarian edition

New Zealand edition

Portuguese edition 

Russian Edition

Spanish edition

Thai edition

United Kingdom edition

Auto Racing

A Hesketh 308E in 1977's Penthouse Rizla Racing livery.

Penthouse sponsors the 1X car of driver Randy Hannagan in the World of Outlaws sprint car series. Much controversy from fans has surrounded the sponsorship with many claiming to outright boycott any event Hannagan is entered in. The sports sanction body, DIRT Motorsport however will not prevent Penthouse from their sponsorship role. There is a section of Penthouse's official site that can only be accessed through a link on Hannagan's website and when accessed offers a special discount for a one year subscription to the publication.

The magazine previously sponsored cars in the Formula One circuit from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Teams included Hesketh Racing and RAM.

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(source:wikipedia)

Bob Guccione, Penthouse Founder, Dies at 79

Bob Guccione, who founded Penthouse magazine in the 1960s and built a pornographic media empire that broke taboos, outraged the guardians of taste and made billions before drowning in a slough of bad investments and Internet competition, died Wednesday in Plano, Tex., The Associated Press reported. He was 79.A statement issued by the Guccione family said he died at Plano Specialty Hospital after a long battle with cancer, The A.P. said.

His empire began in London in 1965 with a bank loan, an idea and an accident. The loan was for $1,170. The idea was a new magazine with nude photos to outdo Hugh Hefner’s Playboy. And the accident was an old mailing list, so that promotional brochures with pornographic samples went out to clergymen, schoolgirls, old-age pensioners and wives of members of Parliament.

The outcry was huge. And there was a $264 fine for mailing indecent materials. But all 120,000 copies of the first issue of Penthouse sold out in days, and Mr. Guccione, a struggling artist from New Jersey who had been knocking around Europe for more than a decade, was on his way to being a tycoon.

By the early 1980s he was one of America’s richest men, king of a $300 million publishing empire, General Media, which owned Penthouse, with a monthly circulation of 4.7 million in 16 countries, and 15 other magazines, including Omni and Penthouse Forum as well as titles on bodybuilding, photography and computers, in addition to book, video and merchandising divisions.

Forbes listed Mr. Guccione’s net worth in 1982 as $400 million. His art collections, worth $150 million, included works by Degas, Renoir, Picasso, El Greco, Dalí, Matisse and Chagall. Troves of art and antiques filled his Manhattan home, a 17,000-square-foot double town house on East 67th Street, and his country estate in Staatsburg, N.Y.

Mr. Guccione looked the part of the libidinous pornographer. He was tanned and muscled, and he wore slim pants and silk shirts open to the waist, showing gold chains on a hairy chest. His personality was volatile, but he did not drink, smoke or use drugs.

“He was a mass of contradictions, engendering fierce loyalty and equally fierce contempt,” Patricia Bosworth, who had been executive editor of Mr. Guccione’s Viva magazine in the 1970s, wrote in Vanity Fair in 2005. “He hired and fired people, then rehired them. He could be warm and funny one minute and cold and detached the next.”

Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 17, 1930, the son of Anthony and Nina Guccione. He was raised Roman Catholic in Bergenfield, N.J., and said he considered the priesthood, but decided to be an artist. In 1948 he graduated from Blair Academy, in Blairstown, N.J. At 18 he married the first of his three wives, Lilyann Becker, and had a daughter, Tonia. The marriage soon failed.

Over the next 12 years he traveled in Europe and North Africa, sketching tourists in cafes and working odd jobs. In Tangier he met Muriel Hudson, an English singer. They traveled together for several years, were married in 1955 and had four children: Bob Jr., Nina, Anthony and Nick.

In 1960 they settled in London, where he ran a dry-cleaning business, drew cartoons for a syndicate and edited a small newspaper. A mail-order business, selling back issues of men’s magazines, put him deep in debt, and his wife left him, taking the children. But Penthouse transformed his life.

With Kathy Keeton, a dancer from South Africa who was his girlfriend, his business partner and later his wife, Mr. Guccione challenged Playboy at the height of the sexual revolution, introducing Penthouse in the United States in 1969 and building it into one of the nation’s most successful magazines, a mix of what was billed as “sex, politics and protest” that took in an estimated $3.5 billion to $4 billion over 30 years.

Its images of women, often shot by Mr. Guccione, left little to the imagination. Compared with Playboy Playmates, as the Hefner centerfold models were known, Penthouse Pets were arrayed in more provocative poses. The magazine infuriated feminists and conservatives, but others praised it for breaking taboos.

Penthouse occasionally ran nude layouts of well-known women, including Madonna. In 1984, sexually explicit photos of Vanessa Williams, taken two years before she became the first black Miss America, appeared in Penthouse. Ms. Williams lost her crown and sued for $500 million, but the suit was dropped and Penthouse reported a $14 million newsstand windfall.

Aside from the battle of the centerfolds, Penthouse offered an aura of class: fiction, celebrity profiles and political articles. It published Alan Dershowitz, Stephen King, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates and J. P. Donleavy, and interviews with Germaine Greer, Gore Vidal and Isaac Asimov.

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(source:nytimes.com)