2 million at auction to porn site owner
parents company of Penthouse magazine has been sold at auction for $11.2 million, Five months after the adult entertainment brand filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a federal court in California. The deal is predicted to be finalized this month.
The June 4 auction had an opening bid of $3 million and saw offers from prominent adult entertainment brands including Pornhub, which is owned by MindGeek, And lewis Flynt's Hustler.
"Some were bidding for the entire thing, several were bidding for pieces, alleged Hamid Rafatjoo, legal counsel at Raines Feldman, Who there the
What to Expect When Marrying a Filipina unsecured creditors committee.
The sale to WGCZ is for the whole company, he was quoted saying.
It remains unclear if Kelly Holland the leader of Penthouse who formed the company in 2016 in a management buyout from its previous owner will stay on with the company after the deal closes. Holland didn't improve with requests for comment.
Penthouse said in its auction notice that it has 30 employees and gross annual revenue of just about $10 million.
Assets listed in the notice include content from more than 50 years of print publishing as well as art logos and licensing agreements. The company also oversees several adult satellite and cable channels that account for about half of its revenue.
required,as an affiliate, Penthouse has a film catalog with more than 1,200 something, the particular infamous 1980 movie "Caligula,
Chatsworth based Penthouse said in its bankruptcy filing in January that it had financial obligations of between $10 million and $50 million. the particular took on about $10 million in debt during the 2016 management buyout, which had been financed by ExWorks Capital, A Chicago outlay firm.
that debt was later acquired by a firm called Dream Media.
The Penthouse sale is the most recent financial turn for the legendary publisher, Which like other legacy adult media companies has been silently suffering through declining ad revenue and the ubiquity of free online amateur porn.
Before the 2016 control buyout, Penthouse was owned by FriendFinder networking sites, The Florida based online dating site that had merged with the publisher in 2007 and explored the idea of shutting down the print magazine. FriendFinder itself filed for bankruptcy policy cover in 2013.
placed in 1965 by Bob Guccione, Penthouse was seen as a more explicit rival to Playboy and became a cultural icon on its own, distributing explicit photos and long form journalism.
The magazine made waves last month by putting porn star Stormy Daniels on its cover, Dubbing her often the "Penthouse Pet from Century, Daniels states she had a consensual affair with Donald Trump in 2006, 10 years before he was elected web design manager, And that Trump's attorney paid her hush money to keep quiet within affair.
