[gonzo]

Originally Posted by will76

LOL i love how they say 22 million active members but only 1.2 million were paying members. I would think the 1.2 million who paid is probably a more accurate number of the "real" people who use the site. I wonder how many of those 22 million active are fake profiles and people spamming. but 22 million does sound sexy.


Here is my thoughts on this, first posted here right now.

AFF / Cams bought all the ads they could, they offered payouts that they were losing money on, they did everything they could to run up their traffic and and affiliate sales to try to sell the company. It worked, they landed Penthouse to buy it. A couple days later they reduce payouts from $130 a signup to $55. It didn't take rocket science to see what they were doing.

Penthouse. Another company with a history of failures (ibill ring a bell). They want to go public, they see that as their big pay day to take the company public but who wants to buy stock in a paper magazine company when that is becoming obsolete, so they need more of a web presence so they can give confidence to potential stock buyers that they are growing in the right direction and to beef up their profit / income / assets etc.

So Penthouse buys Various for the sole purpose of giving them enough legitimacy to take the company public.

Anyone notice that Various sold for only $500 million but included stock as well. For a company that claims it grossed 285 million last year with very low overhead, 500 million isn't a lot of money. I bet Penthouse "sold" Various on the idea that they would be going public and they would bank millions off of their stock.

Here is the problems I see:
1. what if the company doesn't go public, Various is going to feel fucked I am sure.
2. what if AFF/Cams legal issues catch up to them and start to sink penthouse and take them down with them.
3. In the situation above I wouldn't be surprised if you see Penthouse try to get out of the deal some kind of way.
4. In My Opinion both companies have been trying to puff up themselves to find a sucker to buy into it so they can make a huge payday. Various did this to land Penthouse, and Penthouse bought various to try to go public.

Penthouse has a terrible history of failures from what I have read, not a good track record. I will be surprised if this turns out the way Various or Penthouse expected.

Ofcourse this is all my opinion and we will see by the end of the year how all of this turns out.

This theory has a ring to it. Like you said well know before the end of the year.

We are all still waiting on Sean from Streamray to get back from lunch.