The legendary adult company saw an explosion of new online subscriptions in the last quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Playboy reported nearly $9.1 million in revenue for online adult for the fourth quarter of 2005, compared to $6.1 from the same period in the previous year.
The spike in revenue from its online business comes after the September $12 million acquisition of online adult company ICS, which owns Adult.com, GFY.com and RealityCash. ICS also owns the Webmaster Access trade shows and CinemaPlay Entertainment Group, a Chatsworth, Calif.-based video distribution outlet.
Playboy did not break down revenue by division; however the filing did point to its online adult unit as its brightest sector. For 2005, the company had $26.1 million in revenue, a $5 million gain from the previous year.
On Tuesday, Chicago-based Playboy saw shares surge, rising as much as 10 percent after the company provided an upbeat annual profit forecast.
For 2005, the adult company as a whole posted a weaker-than-expected profit of $4.6 million, down from $14.5 million, a year earlier.
But the company said it expects to see earnings from 20 percent to 25 percent this year.
“We enter 2006 in a stronger competitive and financial position than a year ago,” Playboy CEO Christie Hefner said. “We expect that our entertainment and licensing businesses will show another year of strong profit growth that again will mitigate continued weakness in publishing.”
Playboy also operates the Playboy and Spice television networks and distributes DVDs. It also licenses the Playboy logo and publishes its namesake magazine and almost two dozen foreign editions.
