Playboy To Buy Spice For $95 Million

Moving to eliminate a key competitor in the adult TV market, Playboy Enterprises Inc. said Wednesday it had agreed to acquire Spice Entertainment Cos. Inc. in a stock deal worth about $95 million. Chicago-based Playboy also said it lost $30,000 in the quarter ended Dec. 31 on net revenues of $81.3 million, after making a costly accounting change and absorbing other one-time items. In the same period a year ago, Playboy posted a profit of $2.8 million on net revenues of $79.8 million. On a per-share basis, Playboy broke even for the quarter, compared with a year-ago profit of 14 cents per share.