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BUSINESS
Larry Flynt

Will Larry Flynt take Hustler porn empire public?

Bowdeya Tweh
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Larry Flynt speaks on First Amendment issues at Syracuse University on March 5, 2013.

CINCINNATI — At age 71, Hustler founder and chairman Larry Flynt said he's growing weary of stirring the pot.

But that doesn't mean the chief executive of the Los Angeles-based porn empire is leaving the business soon. He wants to grow the enterprise even larger — by making it a publicly traded company

Flynt said Friday that the privately held company could go public within the next 12 to 18 months. He said the company is already working with "high powered" firms to study the possibility of an initial public offering.

"That's no small feat," Flynt told The Enquirer. "We'd just be able to raise a lot more money. We're trying to decide whether to take the whole company public or just a portion of it. The decision hasn't been made yet."

Flynt's company declines to disclose revenue, but he said it could be worth $500 million. Flynt opened his first Hustler club in Dayton in 1968 and the first Hustler magazine was sold 40 years ago.

A few adult entertainment companies are publicly traded but many have returned to being privately held. Playboy Enterprises was a publicly traded company before founder Hugh Hefner took the company private in 2011. Boulder, Colo.-based New Frontier Media was publicly traded before a Hustler company bought it in 2012.

Houston-based strip club and restaurant operator RCI Hospitality Holdings, formerly Rick's Cabaret International, has been publicly traded company since 1995 and has a market capitalization of $117.2 million.

The Hustler empire includes the Hustler television network, a casino near Los Angeles, more than 60 adult websites, retail stores, a merchandise production licensing division, Hustler magazine, adult film production companies, and a Las Vegas strip club. The company employs about 1,200 people. Flynt has two Hustler Express stores in Cincinnati and a Hustler Hollywood in Monroe.

"Twenty five years ago, 85% of profits came from paper," Flynt said. "Now, less than 5% of profits come from publishing. We've changed the whole economics of our company (but) we're more sound than we were before."

Flynt said Hustler has a succession strategy in place, but "he's not obsessed" with talking about it. He said the brand remains strong and he knows his name is synonymous with what is one of the world's biggest adult entertainment companies.

But when Flynt leaves his position, he said the company will likely be operated by his trust. Among family members still part of the company are Elizabeth Berrios, Flynt's wife, who is a vice president, and his daughter Teresa, who is chief marketing officer.

Expanding the parameters of free speech is one of the biggest legacies Flynt believes he'll have after leaving the company. Fights over First Amendment protections and obscenity that began in the 1970s were part of the 1996 biopic The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Larry and his younger brother Jimmy Flynt were indicted in 1976 on charges of obscenity and then Hamilton County prosecutor Simon Leis Jr., who later became sheriff, led the prosecution. A jury found Flynt guilty and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. However, his lawyers appealed and successfully overturned the conviction.

Cincinnati native and businessman Charles Keating, who died earlier this year, was among the people who led a crusade against pornography.

"Another thing that always infuriated me is do-gooders like Keating," Flynt said. "They couldn't keep the streets clean, but they wanted to keep your minds pure. I was aggravated by that. I never felt the government should be in the business of dictating morality."

Larry and Jimmy Flynt have been involved in legal battles for several years over issues on trademark infringement and control over the Hustler company. The brothers no longer talk and Flynt has he's bothered by his younger brother wanting to take credit for a company he built. Jimmy Flynt says Larry unceremoniously forced him out of the company.

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