“With all of the new technologies and the excitement surrounding them, this is the right time for us,” Hirsch told Forbes’ Brett Pulley.
Currently, only a handful of adult companies have made the IPO leap, including New Frontier Media, Jill Kelly Productions and Private Media Group.
Adult shops looking to sell shares have historically faced tremendous public relations problems. Investors, even those who have no moral objections to pornography, have in the past been frightened off by legal and political uncertainties.
But adult companies also enjoy several advantages when it comes to dealing with Wall Street. For one, most are already profitable, which cannot be said for the lion’s share of IPO candidates. And they also are widely recognized as being on the front end of the e-commerce revolution.
“Ninety percent of what we are selling as a company is the ability for our consumers to get access to our content discreetly and in the privacy of their own home,” said New Frontier CEO Mark Kreloff.
The ease with which consumers can access adult material over the Internet has, no doubt, weighed into Vivid’s decision to bring the company public.
“When it comes to broadband, all of a sudden we can reach every consumer who wants to buy adult content,” said Bill Asher, president. “For that reason, it’s going to make a lot of sense for companies like ours… to invest heavily in this business now.”
Vivid seems like a prime candidate for public offering, thanks to its position at the forefront of the adult-mainstream crossover movement.
The company currently generates an estimated $100 million from its films, websites, and branded merchandise, which includes condoms, snowboards, apparel and comic books. It recently opened a night club in The Venetian Hotel on the Las Vegas strip. And Vivid enjoys widespread name recognition thanks to its stable of high-profile contract girls, including Savannah Storm and Chloe Jones, and its exclusive distribution deal with the reigning queen of adult, Jenna Jameson.
And there is a precedent for adult companies finding success on Wall Street. Since Private went public in 1997, the company’s shares have skyrocketed a split-adjusted 268 percent, according to Forbes, and New Frontier has seen similar growth. Vivid still must find a banker interested enough and serious enough to commit to the IPO process. The company first considered an IPO offering in 2001 but decided to back off after the NASDAQ busted.
But barring any sudden downturn in the market, it looks like this will be Vivid’s year to make the leap. “The time is right,” Hirsch said.