Penthouse buys Friendfinder for $500 million

 

 

Penthouse Media has bought Various Inc, for $500 million, according to the New York Times.

Various owns AdultFriendFinder, an adult community for swingers, and a range of more than 25 smaller and less risque sites. It does business under the name FriendFinder and claims to have more than 260 million total users, with 1.2 of them paying customers.

Penthouse is trying to expand into the web. Marc H. Bell, the company’s chief executive, said the strategy was to diversify from its print origins and serve a range of sex-related print, in video and online material to 18-to-34-year-old men.

Bell is part of a group of private investors called PET Capital Partners, that bought the financially bankrupt Penthouse magazine in 2004.

.......................................................................................................................