NEW YORK – Felix Dennis, who shook up the U.S. men's magazine business 10 years ago with the launch of men's lifestyle magazine Maxim, is selling that title as well as its spinoff Stuff and the music magazine Blender.
Dennis' company didn't disclose his reasons for selling the three magazines in a brief statement Thursday, and company spokesman Drew Kerr declined to comment.
Dennis has said previously that he intends to sell his publishing businesses one day, however, and use the proceeds to plant a forest in his native England.
Dennis' company said in a statement it has hired the investment banking firm Allen & Co. to explore a sale of Stuff, Blender and Maxim as well as the 25 international editions of Maxim.
Dennis will hold on to a portfolio of magazines in the United Kingdom, including several gambling, technology and car magazines, as well as The Week, a news digest magazine that it published in the U.K. as well as the United States.
Dennis launched Maxim in the United States in 1997, two years after its debut in the U.K., and its formula of raunchy humor and scantily clad women quickly caught on with young adult men. The magazine now guarantees advertisers a circulation of 2.5 million.
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