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| Pr0n Bailout: Larry Flynt, Joe Francis Seeking Government Money |
| 2009-01-07 |
| An article in next month's Atlantic asks, "Is pr0n recession proof?" According to pr0n magnate Larry Flynt and "Girls Gone Wild" king Joe Francis, the answer is no. TMZ reports that the pr0nographer pair is heading to Washington to ask for a $5 billion porn bailout: "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt says. "It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America." Francis sees his industry like the big three automakers, only BIGGER: "Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration." In the Atlantic article, Tom Johansmeyer reports that AdultVest, a hedge fund run by Francis Koenig that invests in pr0n-related assets, was up 50% in 2008 (a number that Joe Wiesenthal at ClusterStock says ought to be taken with a grain of salt). Johansmeyer goes on to discuss the recession effect on the pr0n industry: Relatively small, fragmented, and unaccustomed to outside investment, the U.S. pr0n industry (which generated roughly $12 billion in 2007) is someÂwhat buffered from today's credit crunch, but it has its own problems. Video sales have been falling by 15 percent a year since 2005, and online content doesn't deliver the returns it used to, now that Web sites such as RedTube and Pr0nHub basically give it away. Struggling companies need investors to help right their operations, and those that are thriving in a brutal market need funding for growth. Enter Koenig and AdultVest. He sees the pr0n downturn as temporary and believes that technological improvements will trigger a turnaround. One example: iPr0n, a start-up in AdultVest's portfolio that is developing an application to deliver pr0n to the Apple iPod. "The industry's not going anywhere," Koenig says. "You've got 6 billion people on the planet," he laughs, "and they're all h0rny." |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #6 Maybe they just need links to the 'hot' animal husbandry sites? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-01-07 22:14 |
| #5 Now if we can just make free internet available to every Ahmad and Mohammad out there, they'd be too busy on line to bother the rest of the world Procopius2k, good idea but it doesn't work, only seems to make them worse. |
| Posted by: tipper 2009-01-07 20:43 |
| #4 Uh, uh, methinks I'll go with D *** NG IT, FINALLY SOMETHING WORTHY FOR DASTARDLY CONGRESSCRITTERS TO BAIL OUT??? * HOMER SIMPSON > NOW THATS PSYCHOLOGY! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-01-07 20:17 |
| #3 It's not the 'recession' [boy, is there a line in there someplace], it's the internet stupid. Why anyone pays for what's free out there is still a wonder. Now if we can just make free internet available to every Ahmad and Mohammad out there, they'd be too busy on line to bother the rest of the world. It would be similar to the impact of alcohol on native Americans who lacked a few thousand years of genetic adaptation to the stuff. Bam! It wouldn't be suicide vests going off. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-01-07 18:23 |
| #2 "You've got 6 billion people on the planet," he laughs, "and they're all h0rny." He's never met my wife.......... |
| Posted by: Beavis 2009-01-07 16:41 |
| #1 Damn, this recession IS worse than I thought! |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-01-07 16:35 |