'Playboy' Is Selling. Who's Buying?

With its usual impeccable timing, Playboy Enterprises hung out a "for sale" sign yesterday during its year-end earnings call with analysts. In response to an analyst's question, interim CEO Jerome Kern said he's "open to discussions" with anyone who might want to buy the company, whose market capitalization has fallen to around $50 million as its revenues dwindle.

Had Playboy gone on the block a few years ago, there likely would've been a line out the door to bid on it. Sure, the arrival of unlimited free internet porn has diminished the value of Playboy's offerings considerably, but it's still one of the dozen or so truly iconic magazine brands, and prying it free of Hugh Hefner's grasp might finally allow for the sweeping reinvention it so desperately needs.

But that might not be enough to attract would-be buyers in this environment. A few thoughts on who might be willing to take a look:

-FriendFinder Networks. It already owns Penthouse, a name whose dubious value has become more dubious still thanks to CEO Marc Bell's abortive effort to make over that magazine. Whatever synergies FriendFinder had hoped to exploit between its web properties and Penthouse, they'll presumably be stronger with Playboy. On the other hand, FriendFinder seems to have already bitten off more than it can chew with $460 million IPO. Not the best time to be going shopping.

-Kent Brownridge. The former Wenner Media exec will surely be eager to redeem himself after failures at Alpha Media (the former Dennis Publishing) and OK magazine. But he'd need someone else to put up the money, and it's hard to imagine who would do that after the deal he engineered to acquire Maxim and Blender went bad, leaving Quadrangle Partners with a mess on its hands.

-Jack Kliger: The former Hachette Filipacchi Media chairman, who stepped down last year isn't done in magazine publishing. I'm told he's talking to money guys about buying something he would run, although it doesn't sound like he's thinking quite so big.

-Ron Burkle. He already owns quite a few magazines, and a big magazine wholesaling business, through his Source Interlink Cos. And Playboy falls squarely into his, ahem, area of interest. (Disclosure: I think I used to work for Burkle at Radar.)