It was announced today that the famous Hugh Hefner, of Playboy fame, has passed away at the age of 91. Hefner not only gained worldwide recognition, but he also earned a huge amount of money from building the Playboy Enterprises Corporation, which consists not only of the magazine but many other business lines.
What was Hugh Hefner net worth 2018? Where will his estate go? How much money was he earning at the end of his life? Read on…
Hugh Hefner grew up a modest means in the mid-1920s. His parents were conservative Christians. After going to college, he started working in the magazine business, first at Esquire.
However, he soon left Esquire and decided to start his own business. According to E!, he managed to get a total of $8000, mostly from friends and family, and started the business from there. He managed to sell 50,000 copies of his first issue by taking advantage of nude photos released of Marilyn Monroe.
From there, Playboy grew and grew. At its height in the 1970s, Playboy was selling over 7 million issues. It currently does sales of around five and half million issues.
Although Playboy has assets that are worth huge amounts of money, it has recently not been doing particularly well and taking losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, in the last few years, net income losses of $50 million or more per year have been the norm.
Nevertheless, Playboy’s assets, such as its rabbit logo, which is one of the most recognized logos in history, and its licensing business — and of course the $100 million mansion — are worth a significant amount of money. It is estimated that Playboy magazine only accounted for about 30% of its value.
In the mid to thousands, the company was public, and at that point I reported assets of around $200 million. Since then, Hugh Hefner took the company private again. In 2018, the owners of Playboy put the business up for sale at $500 million.
So how much money did Hugh Hefner make from Playboy Enterprises? At one point Hugh Hefner was worth over $200 million. However as the success of Playboy dwindled, his losses mounted.
Hugh Hefner took significant losses over that time. Hugh Hefner net worth 2018 was estimated at $50 million about a year ago, according to Newsweek. However, he earned additional money from the sale of the Playboy mansion, as well as other ventures. Newsweek reports that he had $36 million in stocks, as well as a $6 million account, and a $100k/month salary.
What will happen to Hugh Hefner’s estate? He had previously planned to give $3 million to Playboy model Holly Madison (see net worth here) . He also has 4 children, who will likely share in his estate. It’s unclear if another former “Girl Next Door”, Kendra Wilkinson (see her net worth here) will receive anything.
Photo: Luke Ford