FriendFinder Networks, which filed to go public in late 2008, but pulled the offering a year ago, citing “market conditions,” is trying once again. The company is best known for owning Penthouse (and for unsuccessfully trying to buy Playboy (NYSE: PLA) last year) although it makes most of its money…

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  Although European streaming music service Spotify is still not ready to enter the U.S. market—it continues to make its stateside intentions known—it’s inching closer, as it has reportedly struck a deal with Sony (NYSE: SNE) after negotiating for several months.…

Playboy (NYSE: PLA) has settled its breach of contract legal dispute with DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), the company announced in an 8-K filing. The settlement will result in a $13 million charge on Playboy’s Q4 earnings. In addition to the cash settlement, DirecTV has been given the rights to run Playboy’s…

eMusic launched its new website today, which includes 250,000 new songs from Universal, new hits from Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music and Warner Music—and higher prices for its newer tracks.

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  So is news and culture site Slate struggling or “going gangbusters?” Well, traffic may be down, as competitors such as Gawker and Huffington Post audience numbers continue, but as Chairman and EIC Jacob Weisberg points out in a staff memo,…

Penthouse-parent FriendFinder Networks, which pulled its plans for an initial public offering last fall, has now raised $551.2 million in debt financing. Intriguingly, CEO Marc Bell tells the WSJ that the company, which also owns several adult social networks and dating sites, is about to launch “three big initiatives.” 

Naysayers continue expressing suspicion Spotify will launch in the U.S.. But Spotify’s not alone in discovering the challenge of an overseas launch. Here’s a newsflash for the sceptics: the list of U.S. services which haven’t found their way out of America is also long…

Ahead of next week’s earnings report, Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) said that it had $20 million in impairment charges last quarter, according to an 8-K filing. The company attributed most of the write-downs to programming costs. About $3 million of the non-cash charges stem from a dispute over payments DirecTV…

Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) has hired mobile gaming veteran Greg Ballard to lead its digital games business, as the company continues to double-down on the effort. Ballard is joining Warner Bros. only four months after he was hired by mobile video ad network Transpera as CEO; he had previously spent…

Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) is forming a new video game label this year as part of a wider digital strategy to make its brand more mainstream, Paul H. Lee, the company’s managing director for new digital ventures, told paidContent. The company hasn’t decided on a name yet, but it already…

Spotify’s partnerships SVP Paul Brown is leaving after 18 months with the music startup, saying his exit’s on good terms. “I wasn’t looking to leave. But this was an opportunity that came along and which I had to take,” Brown tells MusicWeek.

One of the old jokes people used to make about buying Playboy magazine was that they “just read it for the articles.” Well, when someone buys its new $4.99 iPad app in the iTunes Store, they just might be serious when they say that. Like the earlier Playboy (NYSE: PLA)…

Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) posted slightly better-than-expected results in Q2, as company watchers continued to wonder about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s bid to take to the company private and the counteroffers. Meanwhile, digital revenues continued to improve, but the total publishing segment was pulled down by print and other woes.

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q209	Net Inc. vs Q209
Playboy	Release	N/A	10%	37.9%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Despite trying for over a year, Spotify has been beaten to U.S. launch by Rdio, the comparable online music start-up backed by Atomico Ventures’ Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who earlier in their careers founded Skype and Kazaa.

So, why did Disney (NYSE: DIS) decide to buy Playdom? Disney Interactive Media Group President Steve Wadsworth told paidContent in a joint interview with Playdom CEO (and now Disney EVP) John Pleasants that Disney is on a “fairly aggressive mission to build a high-growth interactive media business.” He said the…

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is making a big move into social games, with the purchase of fast-growing social game developer Playdom for up to $763.2 million. The deal includes a “total consideration” of $563.2 million, in addition to a performance-linked earn-out of up to $200 million. In a release, which…

As speculation swirls around Playboy (NYSE: PLA) founder Hugh Hefner’s bid to take to the company private—and the counteroffers—the safe-for-work site, TheSmokingJacket.com, is now live. Jimmy Jellinek, Playboy’s chief content officer, heralded the release of the non-nude site by offering this statement: “Cube dwellers and office drones alike shall rejoice…

Four days after Playboy (NYSE: PLA) founder Hugh Hefner made a bid to take his company private, Penthouse parent FriendFinder Networks is making its own $210 million offer for the company, as was widely expected. FriendFinder argues in a letter to the Playboy board that its proposal tops Hefner’s all-cash…

It’s been over half a year since Playboy (NYSE: PLA) entertained any possible buyers, so founder Hugh Hefner has decided enough is enough; he has stepped in with an offer to take the company private for $5.50 per share. The 84-year-old Hefner currently owns 69.5 percent of PEI’s Class A…