Penthouse

Bob Guccione, the founder of Penthouse magazine, died Wednesday at the age of 79.

Hugh Hefner's offer to buy all of Playboy Enterprises and take it private may look like a slam-dunk because he already owns so much of it. Not so. Some big shareholders say it's a low-ball bid, and already FriendFinder has made a higher offer.

Taking Playboy Enterprises private could put the company and its valuable brand back on a path to growth while allowing Hefner to select his successor. Says one analyst: "There's really no upside to being public for them."

FriendFinder Network, formerly known as Penthouse, needs money fast. The weight of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt has prompted it to turn to public capital markets. It%u2019s a desperate move -- in fact, the same move the company made a year ago under the same circumstances.

House and Garden. Blueprint. Domino. Country Home. These magazine titles shuttered in the last 15 months could be the first in a long string of failures, if this quarter's ad page reports are any indication (the number of ad pages is widely referred to in the industry as a sign of the profitability...

At least there's some movement in the housing market, as evidenced by a penthouse in downtown Los Angeles selling for $3 million. The Los Angeles Times reports that Evo, a residential tower being built in the downtown South Park district near the Staples Center, had a buyer pay $3 million -- which...

If there's a recession going on someone forgot to tell Penthouse. The parent company of the men's magazine, FriendFinder Networks, is betting softcore porn and the need for companionship will remain profitable through the recession. The company, which had been well known for explicit adult images,...

Diversification is a common approach for companies that wish to insulate themselves from market shifts. I've rarely seen an example as amusing, though, as that behind the Christian dating service BigChurch.com. The site, which proports to 'Bring people together in love and faith," is owned by the...

Here's an item that should remind you of our country's Puritan routes.Rep. Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, has introduced a bill that would ban the sale of soft-core pornographic magazines on military bases.According to Broun, "Allowing sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military...