Hefner Family Sells Off the Last Piece of Playboy They Owned for $35 Million
By TheBlast Staff on August 1, 2018 at 11:34 AM EDT
It's the end of an era: for the first time in its history, the Hefner family has no ownership of Playboy.
A deal was just struck between the Hugh Hefner Trust and the parent company that owns Playboy Enterprises, calling for the Hefners to sell their last shares in the company for $35 million.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the deal is with Icon Acquisition Holdings LLC who already owns some of Playboy, and is was broken into two separate parts. In the first part, Icon agreed to pay $15 million for 800,000 shares of the company. The remaining one million shares are being put into escrow, which Playboy is paying for through a $20 million loan.
The money in the deal will then be distributed to Hefner's kids and his widow, Crystal Hefner, as well as his other beneficiaries.
One of Hefner's son continues to work with the company but will have no ownership.
Hugh Hefner founded Playboy in Chicago in 1953, which he famously funded with a $1,000 loan from his mother. Hefner was synonymous with Playboy and he was the face of the brand throughout its rise to national prominence.
Hefner passed away on September 27, 2017.
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