CHICAGO - Hugh Hefner may be 84 and more than a little reliant on modern medicine to maintain his lifestyle. But the father of free love isn't about to go quietly into the night.
Faced with a sagging stock price and building pressure from Wall Street, Hefner startled the media world Monday by announcing a bid to reassert control over Playboy Enterprises Inc., the struggling Chicago-based adult publishing empire he founded in 1953.
The proposed deal to buy all the outstanding shares Hefner doesn't already own would be financed by a Michigan-based private equity fund called Rizvi Traverse Management and would value Playboy at about $185 million, or 40 percent more than it was trading for when the market closed Friday.
But it may also put the iconic publisher into play. Marc Bell, chief executive of FriendFinder Networks Inc., which owns dating websites and the rival Penthouse adult franchise, said he is readying a competing bid for Playboy. And given the active interest among several potential suitors last year, it is possible other bids might emerge, analysts said.
Potential bidders can expect a fight from Hefner, who exerts tight control over the production of his increasingly anachronistic magazine and has been fiercely reluctant to cede control of the company he built from scratch. After a protracted period of negotiation last year, he rejected competing bids from brand management company Iconix Brand Group Inc. and a former Playboy executive that might have fetched as much as $300 million.
Hefner currently owns 69.5 percent of Playboy's Class A common stock and 27.7 percent of its Class B common. The Class A shares are the only ones that vote, giving Hefner unquestioned control.
Playboy said in a statement that Hefner told the board of directors he is not interested in any sale or merger of Playboy and is not talking with other partners besides Rizvi. The reason, he said, is that he is interested in preserving the Playboy brand, its legacy and the editorial direction of the magazine.
