Playboy on Block for $300M

With the magazine at its heart struggling against the tide of the Internet, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire is seeking a buyer for $300 million, the New York Post reports. That’s three times its current market capitalization, but sources say Hef won’t sell unless he can get the cash to keep up his luxe life. So far, none of the wealthy firms approached has bitten.

“Everyone says he’ll never let go, that he’ll take it with him to the grave,” sources say of Hefner, 83, who started the magazine in 1953. A spokeswoman for Playboy tells Crain’s Chicago Business “it is not being shopped.”