file under: Germanification of American business
(alternate - German sex in America)
excerpts from a recent article about a bid to acquire Penthouse:
German sex shop chain makes $62m play for Penthouse group
Guccione faces battle that could upset his rescue plan
Mark Milner
Friday January 30, 2004
The Guardian
Bob Guccione is facing a battle for control of Penthouse, the magazine he founded in the 1960s as a rival to Hugh Hefner's Playboy.
Beate Uhse, the publicly quoted German company that owns a string of sex shops, has tabled a $62m (£34m) bid for General Media, which publishes the magazine.
The offer comes at a time when General Media, of which Mr Guccione is chairman and chief executive, is seeking backing for its own reorganisation plan...
General Media filed for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors last August as it struggled to compete against new, more celebrity-orientated, magazines and the increasing availability of pornography on the internet...
Beate Uhse, which has been quoted on the German stock market since 1999, is keen to use the Penthouse name to expand its mail order business internationally.
The spokeswoman said: "Penthouse is a very, very, well known brand in the world, especially in the US. Beate Uhse is more a German brand."...
Beate Uhse has about 300 shops in 13 countries as well as its mail order operation.
It was named after the former Luftwaffe pilot who founded the company in 1946... Her mother, who was one of the first woman doctors in Germany.
She started her business by distributing information on birth control... and set up a mail order company in 1951.
Her first sex shop opened in 1962. She died in 2001 aged 81.
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Interestingly enough, I saw Beate Uhse, in person, when I happened to visit the Frankfurt stock exchange the day her company went public. In fact, I picked up a box of candy breasts that were being given out to commemorate the occasion.
Posted by raacluse at January 31, 2004 08:52 AM