from www.marketwatch.com – Playboy Enterprises Inc. founder Hugh Hefner on Monday offered to take the company private at a price of $5.50 a share, a premium of $1.56 a share, or 40% over the stock’s closing price of $3.94 a share on Friday.

Based on the company’s 33.5 million shares of stock outstanding, the deal values the media firm at $184 million. Hefner, who founded Playboy in 1953, has had discussions with Rizvi Traverse Management LLC about serving as a partner in the deal.

“Hefner is not interested in any sale or merger of PEI, selling Hefner’s shares to any third party or entering into discussions with any other financial sponsor,” according to a statement from the company. Hefner owns 3.4 million shares of the company’s Class A stock and about 7.9 million Class B shares, according to its annual report.