A quick glance at the $27 million loss posted by Playboy Enterprises Inc. in the third quarter might make some think it’s time for Hef to downgrade to cotton pajamas. But analysts think the company known for its iconic founder, Hugh Hefner, is closer than it appears to a silky smooth future.
The major charge that sunk Playboy’s bottom line in the quarter ending Sept. 30 was a $22.3 million impairment write-down of the value of its television division.
The Chicago-based company has struggled to cope with heightened competition from the Internet since the start of the century. At the end of 2008, Christie Hefner, the boss’s daughter and 20-year CEO of the company, declared it was time for change and stepped down. Current chief Scott Flanders took the reins of the biggest name in adult entertainment in the summer of 2009 and quickly decided that the company’s greatest asset had changed. The universally known bunny logo had eclipsed the flagship magazine that made the company famous. Since then Flanders has taken major steps to transform Playboy from a media company into a brand licensor.
Playboy's iconic bunny logo is now the driving force behind the company's future.
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