Hugh Hefner, the founder of adult entertainment publication Playboy may part with his creation for about 200 million pounds, says a media report.
"The 83-year-old is reported to be considering selling the company he founded more than 56 years ago for some 200 million pounds, with Sir Richard Branson's firm Virgin tipped as a potential buyer," The Telegraph reported.
Playboy Enterprises, the publisher of Playboy magazine posted a loss of 8.6 million pounds in the first three months of this year.
According to the report, in its heyday in the 1970s, Playboy with its bunny girls was read by a quarter of university students but the rise of the internet, and with it free pornography, has taken its toll on sales.
The daily said that Playboy is still America's best selling men's magazine-– "and Hef and his scantily-clad bunny girls are still a regular fixture on the party scene-– but sales have dropped from seven million an issue in 1972 to around three million now".
Hit by the financial turmoil, the firm has initiated cost cutting measures and has reportedly trimmed its workforce by 25 per cent in "Los Angeles and New York".
The Telegraph noted that Hefner still controls 70 per cent of the company. Quoting a Playboy spokesman, the daily said that there were no changes to "ownership afoot".
