Playboy, Inc.

In 1953, Hugh Hefner founded Playboy magazine, and the company was organized that same year to publish it. The magazine was aimed mainly at male readers, with content including photography, entertainment, humor, cartoons, articles on current issues, and in-depth interviews with figures from politics, business, entertainment, and sports. Over the following decades, the company expanded into entertainment, hospitality, and brand licensing.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][2]

In 1971, the company purchased the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, which served as Hefner’s residence and was used for corporate activities, film, television, and magazine shoots, and charitable and civic functions, raising public awareness of the brand.⁠[1][1][1]

The company’s stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 1973 until it was taken private in 2011. The current operating entity, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., was incorporated in Delaware in April 1998.⁠[2][3]

In fiscal 2009, the company was headquartered at 680 North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, its business was divided into three reporting segments (Entertainment, Print/Digital, and Licensing), and Hefner served as Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer. In the second half of 2009, Playboy magazine ranked 15th among U.S. consumer publications by circulation rate base, ahead of Maxim, GQ, and Esquire. On February 26, 2010, the company had 547 full-time employees, compared with 626 a year earlier.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

On March 4, 2011, Icon Acquisition Holdings, an affiliate of the private investment firm Rizvi Traverse Management, completed its tender offer for all of the company’s outstanding shares, making the company private again, and Playboy Enterprises, Inc. became the group’s top-level operating entity. Rizvi Traverse co-founder Suhail Rizvi became a director of the company that same month.⁠[3][2][2][4][4]

In January 2018, Ben Kohn became the company’s Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman. He had been a director since March 2011 and served as interim CEO from May 2016 to December 2017.⁠[4]

On August 14, 2018, the company’s ownership was reorganized: Icon was dissolved and distributed its shares to its members, RT-ICON Holdings and the Hugh M. Hefner 1991 Trust; the trust then sold all of its 1,868,910 shares back to the company for a total of $35 million.⁠[3][3][3][3]

As part of a transformation, the company shifted its primary business from print and digital media dependent on advertising and sponsorship toward brand licensing and consumer product sales; as part of this shift, the print edition of Playboy magazine ceased publication after the Spring 2020 issue, and playboy.com was converted from a content site into a largely e-commerce site.⁠[3][3][3]

On February 10, 2021, under a merger agreement signed on September 30, 2020, Playboy Enterprises merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of the special purpose acquisition company Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp (MCAC) and became a wholly owned subsidiary of MCAC; MCAC then changed its name to PLBY Group, Inc., and its common stock traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol PLBY.⁠[2][2][2][5]

On March 1, 2021, the company completed its acquisition of TLA Acquisition Corp., the parent company of the Lovers family of stores, gaining office and warehouse space in Auburn, Washington, and 41 retail locations in five states.⁠[4][4]

On August 9, 2021, the company completed its acquisition of all of the capital stock of the Australian luxury lingerie brand Honey Birdette for consideration valued at about AUD 443 million (about $328 million), consisting of about AUD 318 million in cash and 2,155,849 shares of the company’s common stock; its stores became part of the company’s direct-to-consumer channels from that date.⁠[6][6][6][6][3][2]

In October 2021, the company acquired a content creator platform that was later redeveloped into the new Playboy Club. The company subsequently shifted to a capital-light model focused on revenue streams with higher margins and lower working capital requirements.⁠[2][2]

In March 2023, the company formed a joint venture with CT Licensing Limited, a brand management unit of Fung Group, to jointly operate the Playboy business in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau; in late 2025 the two sides mutually agreed to terminate the joint venture arrangement.⁠[2][2][2]

On November 3, 2023, subsidiary Playboy Enterprises completed the sale of all of the capital stock of TLA (the Lovers stores) under a stock purchase agreement signed on October 3, for cash consideration of about $13.5 million. The same day, the company received a Nasdaq notice that the closing bid price of its stock had been below $1 for 30 consecutive business days, failing a continued listing requirement, and it was given a 180-day period to regain compliance.⁠[7][7][7][7][7][7][7]

On October 30, 2024, the company agreed to sell 14.9 million shares to Byborg Enterprises at $1.50 per share for proceeds of $22.35 million; after closing, Byborg would hold about 19.95% and the right to nominate one director. On December 14, subsidiary Playboy Enterprises signed a license and management agreement with Byborg: from January 1, 2025, Byborg would operate Playboy Plus, Playboy TV, and Playboy Club and use related trademarks, for an initial term of 15 years with up to nine renewal terms of 10 years each, with Playboy receiving minimum guaranteed royalties of $20 million per year plus a share of net profits; on the same day, the company also agreed with Byborg subsidiary The Million S.a.r.l. on a subscription for 16,956,842 shares at $1.50 per share, raising about $25.44 million.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8][9][9][9][9][9][9][9]

In 2025, the company resumed publishing Playboy magazine to support brand marketing, content and intellectual property creation, and to explore new revenue streams; that year the magazine business did not represent a material portion of the company’s revenue.⁠[2][2]

On June 25, 2025, following approval at the June 16 annual meeting of stockholders, PLBY Group, Inc. changed its name to Playboy, Inc. and increased its authorized common stock from 150 million to 400 million shares; its stock continued to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol PLBY.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

On August 11, 2025, subsidiary Playboy Enterprises signed a lease with RK Rivani LLC for 20,169 rentable square feet on the sixth floor of the building at 1691 Michigan Ave in Miami Beach, for uses including office, lounge, and studio; the term runs to the end of the 11th lease year, with two options to renew for five years each, and rent payments begin in August 2026. Robert Rivani’s company (formerly named Black Lion) had bought the building, with 161,824 rentable square feet, for $62.5 million the previous year.⁠[11][11][11][11][11][11][11][2][12][12]

That same month, the company announced it would move its headquarters from Los Angeles to the more business-friendly Miami Beach, with the new office on the top floor of the six-story building, and that it planned to open a Playboy Club there with a hospitality partner. CEO Ben Kohn said Miami Beach was the ideal home for Playboy’s next chapter. As of its fiscal 2025 annual report filed in March 2026, the company’s headquarters was still listed in Los Angeles.⁠[12][12][12][12][2]

In September 2026, the building’s renovation was complete and it was 83% leased, with signed tenants also including Morgan StanleyMorgan StanleyMorgan Stanley is an American global financial services firm that grew from an investment banking partnership into a publicly traded financial group spanning investment banking, securities trading, wealth management, and investment management.Open the full entry, WixWix.comWix.com is an Israeli website and application creation platform company whose drag-and-drop and AI tools let users build websites and apps.Open the full entry, and Monarch Athletic ClubMonarch Athletic ClubMonarch Athletic Club is a Los Angeles-based members-only fitness and health care club that combines medicine, fitness, and recovery services in a physician-led model.Open the full entry.⁠[13][13][13]

On December 15, 2025, an independent director resigned for personal reasons, leaving the company’s board without a majority of independent directors; on December 18 the company received a Nasdaq deficiency notice, and under the rules it could cure the deficiency by its 2026 annual meeting of stockholders, with no immediate effect on trading.⁠[14][14][14][14][14][14]

On February 9, 2026, the company signed a share purchase agreement with the Hong Kong company UTG Brands Management Group under which UTG would acquire, in three closings, 50% of Playboy China (BVI) Limited, which handles licensing in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, for a total of $45 million, with UTG paying a $9 million signing deposit. After the initial closing on March 20, Playboy and UTG held about 83.33% and 16.67% of the joint venture, respectively; under the shareholders agreement, Playboy receives annual minimum distributions from 2026 through 2033 ($10 million in 2026), with UTG backstopping any shortfall.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][15][15][15][15][15]

In 2025, the company had consolidated revenue of $120.9 million and a net loss of $12.7 million, compared with $116.1 million and $79.4 million in 2024; the narrower loss came mainly from higher gross profit from the Byborg license, lower digital business revamp expenses, and lower impairments. Byborg contributed $20 million of revenue that year, about 17% of the total, making it the largest licensee; Honey Birdette had 51 stores in Australia, the U.S., and the U.K. As of the end of 2025, the company had 588 employees, 199 of them full-time and full-time-equivalent, and was headquartered in Los Angeles.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

As of March 2026, affiliates of Rizvi Traverse (RT) were the company’s largest stockholder and Suhail Rizvi was Chairman of the board; as of March 10, 2026, Byborg beneficially owned about 13.0%, and György Gattyán, on the Byborg side, served as a director. The company’s strategic priorities for 2026 were three verticals: licensing, media and experiences, and hospitality.⁠[2][2][2][2]

On June 18, 2026, the company agreed with affiliates of Fortress Investment Group to repurchase all 16,589,531 of their shares at $1.05 per share in four installments, for a total of about $17.42 million, to be completed by the end of 2026, with an affiliate of Rizvi Traverse and Byborg affiliate The Million S.a.r.l. signing a backstop agreement. Fortress had been one of the company’s largest stockholders and was to remain its primary senior secured lender after the repurchase.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16][16][16]

In the second quarter of 2026, the company’s revenue was $31.2 million, up 11% year over year, with net income of $0.2 million compared with a net loss of $7.7 million a year earlier; Honey Birdette sales grew 18.2% year over year. In the 2026 Russell indexes reconstitution, the company’s stock joined the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes at the end of June. On the magazine side, the Spring 2026 issue starring Karol G sold out, and Cara Delevingne was the Summer 2026 cover star.⁠[17][17][17][17][17][17]

The company describes itself as a “pleasure and leisure” company and reports in two segments: Direct-to-Consumer, consisting of Honey Birdette’s e-commerce sites and stores, and Licensing, which licenses the Playboy name, the Rabbit Head Design, and other trademarks to partners for apparel and accessories, nightlife and hospitality, digital casino and online gaming, beauty and grooming, sexual wellness products, and more; Creative Artists Agency acts as its exclusive licensing agent for consumer products in most of the world. Playboy-branded products and content are available in about 180 countries.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

Playboy: Official website: https://www.playboy.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/playboy (opens in a new window)⁠[18]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@playboy (opens in a new window)⁠[18]