New York- Bob Guccione, the notorious publisher of Penthouse, is out of the famed hard-core porn magazine that he founded 39 years ago and is now in bankruptcy.

”We couldn’t come to an agreement,” said Marc Bell, the Boca Raton financier who has taken over the ailing monthly.

The septuagenarian Guccione had been negotiating with Bell and his investment group, PET Capital Partners, to remain as a consultant or in another role as PET embarks on a remake of the title into a softer men’s magazine.

Guccione, whose dire financial straits led him to forfeit his antique-filled New York state mansion in August to pay a debt, did not return a phone call to his office in New York.

Earlier this year, Guccione had withdrawn his support of PET’s plan to remake the magazine, backing instead a new plan by Mexican soft-drink heir, Luis Molina.

Molina had bought Guccione’s Manhattan townhouse, which was on the verge of being foreclosed, and promised him a $1 million annual salary to remain at the magazine.

But Molina could not come up with the cash to buy the magazine’s debt from PET by the August deadline and PET remained as principal owner.

PET’s original plan called for Guccione to stay on as publisher emeritus. Bell said he will now have no role.

Guccione founded Penthouse as a racier alternative to Playboy, often photographing the explicit spreads himself.