A bankruptcy judge cleared a reorganization plan Thursday for General Media Inc., the publisher of Penthouse magazine. With its amended plan, Mexican investor Enrique Molina would lose control of Penthouse assets and give it to bondholders led by Florida investor Marc H. Bell.
In a stunning blow to the Penthouse empire, company executives Friday told a U.S. bankruptcy court judge that they may have to conduct an emergency asset sale next month.
The operator of Europe’s largest chain of sex shops has struck a deal with Penthouse for half its stake. German sex-toy shop operator Beate Uhse AG will share ownership with Luis Molina, the Mexican investor who invested in Penthouse International Inc., which owns General Media Inc.
XBiz learned late Friday that Penthouse public shares would no longer be traded on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board and that its stock has been relegated to the Pink Sheets, a stock quotation service that handles high-risk ventures and isn't regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The publisher of Penthouse magazine has filed an amended reorganization plan with U.S. Bankruptcy Court that pays creditors' claims in full. General Media Inc. said this week that up to $12 million in allowed unsecured creditor claims and the claims of holders of about $40 million in notes will be paid in full in cash.
IBill, the largest processor of credit card payments for the online adult industry, has been sold to a subsidiary of Penthouse International Inc. The deal ends a chapter for credit card processor Intercept, which purchased iBill in 2002 for $104 million.
Just as Penthouse is beginning to show signs of recouping after filing Chapter 11 in August, a group of creditors have emerged that could take control of Bob Guccione's porn empire
Bob Guccione's debt-ridden porn empire, a once-powerful icon of old-school print pornography, has faced tough times in recent months competing with the age of Internet porn
