The youngest son of Hugh Hefner is trying to buy his late father's Playboy company back.
Cooper Hefner Cooper Hefner and his investment group is offering $100 million bid for Playboy Enterprises from PLBY Group, according to multiple reports.
Hefner says the private equity firm Hefner Capital pitched the plan to the PLBY board on Monday, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
"It's a great American company and a great American brand, outside of my personal connection to it," Hefner told the Wall Street Journal.
He claims the company has been so badly mismanaged that it could go out of existence. Once valued at $2 billion, the company now has a market value of $53 million, according to the WSJ.
Hefner, 33, was Playboy's chief creative officer for two years after his father died in 2017.
Playboy stopped publishing a print magazine in 2020 but recently announced it would publish an annual edition next February with a Playmate of the Year and a new class of Playboy Bunnies.
The magazine will include the famous Playmate Centerfold which it called a "central component of Playboy since its inception" 70 years ago.
The company has spent the past several years concentrating on licensing deals and selling merchandise like lingerie.
Hefner says he has identified a new strategy to revive the company, according to THR.
"Ultimately, our goal is to honor the brand's heritage while building something dynamic and relevant for the future," he told the outlet.
