Hugh Hefner’s son offers to buy Playboy brand for $100 million

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The youngest son of late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner wants to buy back his father’s storied franchise. Cooper Hefner submitted an offer Monday along with a group of investors to buy the Playboy brand from Playboy Group for $100 million, according to Hefner and a deal proposal viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Playboy Group, officially PLBY Group, also includes a social-media app and a lingerie manufacturer. It had a market value of just over $50 million as of Friday. The company went public through a special-purpose acquisition company when such vehicles were all the rage in 2021 but has seen its shares fall over 90% since then.

“It’s a great American company and a great American brand, outside of my personal connection to it," Hefner, 33, said in an interview. But it “has been managed to a state of potentially nonexistence." Hefner is aiming to buy the Playboy brand and intellectual property and run the publication privately through his investment firm, Hefner Capital. The remaining parts of Playboy Group would continue as a separate company under a new name under his proposal.

The remaining company would also receive a 10% equity stake in the reimagined Playboy. Hefner said in addition to his own money, other investors include a hedge fund and one of Playboy’s former licensing partners. Hefner would run the new Playboy and become its CEO.

Playboy board chairman Suhail Rizvi and representatives for the company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Hefner was Playboy’s chief creative officer for three years, until 2019. Should his bid be successful, he said he has identified new licensing opportunities and media partnerships, such as documentaries, that could increase