Playboy Enterprises reportedly decided to put its business up for sale.
The move comes after previously announcing that the Playboy mansion now carries a $200 million price tag and that the company will stop publishing nude photos, which seemed anachronous to this day and age when Internet users can access free pornography on the web.
Founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953, Playboy featured Marilyn Monroe on its first publication which eventually started a sexual revolution and established American hedonism. Its bunny logo is now one of the most recognizable logos in the market, while the Playboy Mansion has always been the venue for wild parties attended by celebrities and magazine centerfold models.
In 2011, Hefner launched a buyout move that made Playboy a private entity. However, the company saw a struggle in recent years due to the decline in the number of print magazine readers. From around 5.6 million in 1975, Playboy's circulation has dropped to about 800,000.
In January, Playboy has declared its Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles as a property for sale. According to Scott Flanders, Playboy chief executive, the sale of the Playboy Mansion has led the company to ponder on selling the business which is now being handled by Moelis & Company, an investment firm based in Los Angeles.
Flanders added that a number of well funded entities have shown interest in the sale. While no entities had been identified, Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report on the matter, said the company could have a total selling worth of more than $500 million.
Playboy's cover on its March 2016 issue will be the publication's first non-nude release. The issue will feature Sarah McDaniel and will appear similar to a Snapchat message. Playboy's first step to veer away from nudity began in 2014 when it brought down nudity on its online site. The company added that the average age of its visitors to the site had also gone down.
In that same year, the publisher was seen by Standard & Poor as a "vulnerable" company and cited reasons for its vulnerability that include brand licensing competition, sporadic operating shortcomings and a declining positive outlook on printed media content.
Playboy also retired its so-called "joke list." Cory Jones, the magazine's chief content officer, said that the publication's dad jokes are now a bit more like grandpa jokes.
It remains to be seen if the company would be able to close a sale for the whole enterprise or break it down to sell it in parts, which will include the licensing business, the Playboy mansion and the Playboy magazine.
