Playboy Enterprises (PLA)

There are an untold number of small, free pornography sites on the internet that offer the same content as Playboy Online without the need for subscriptions. This provides heavy competition for Playboy's internet porn business by putting a cap on the sites revenue; there will always be potential Playboy customers who would rather trawl the free sites than pay for similar content.

The publisher of one of the world’s best known adult magazines, Playboy Enterprises Inc., (PLA) said it would be open to discussions about an outright sale after posting a wider fourth-quarter loss on weaker-than-expected revenue. The company, which has been through a management shake-up including the resignation in December of longtime Chief Executive Officer Christie Hefner, posted a net loss in each quarter of 2008. A restructuring charge of $157.2 million, and other one-time costs, also hurt results, Reuters reported.

There are an untold number of small, free pornography sites on the internet that offer the same content as Playboy Online without the need for subscriptions. This provides heavy competition for Playboy's internet porn business by putting a cap on the sites revenue; there will always be potential Playboy customers who would rather trawl the free sites than pay for similar content.

The company's most profitable sector is also its smallest sector; Media revenues are almost ten times more than licensing revenues, but Media profits are about even with licensing profits. This illustrates an inefficiency in Playboy's business, as the majority of resources are going to promote the less profitable part of the business.

Playboy magazine, the flagship of the company, has earned negative profits for the past two years, and does not appear to be on course to break even this year.

true -- the internet is not going to disappear anytime soon -- but there are still tangible things such as magazines, books, and newspapers that people still enjoy actually holding. It's called the tactile factor that establishes the link between product and the individual. The reason that Playboy is undervalued is because of the fear of the competition with the proliferation of free porn on the internet. However, playboy has taken the high road in terms of its models, editorials, humor, and profiles. They have established a niche brand of sophistication in regards to its content as opposed to the crude display of porn that is everywhere on the internet. The reason for the unsolicited bid of over $200 million is that the friendfinder company already dabbles in the crude proliferation of porn on the internet that has damaged the existing DVD porn sales and wants to capitalize on an undervalued playboy franchise. Basically, they want the playboy name, but want to remove the sophistication and replace it with filth.