Who's up for a Playboy closing dinner?

News item: Playboy to go private with capital from Rizvi Traverse Management and Jefferies & Company

Not every financing or M&A deal is the same, but most closing dinners certainly are. Bay Street is so tired of them that many firms no longer even pretend to enjoy them. Raise $300 million for a structured product deal, and no one can be bothered to take yet another night away from their families or the office to toast the outcome.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the folks backing the Playboy go-private deal won’t be in that camp, however. For all the money that LPs stand to make from the deal over time, this will be one closing dinner that will certainly go ahead.

I can’t help but think back to the 2005 launch of the game Playboy: The Mansion, created by Toronto’s late lamented Groove Games. I have a faint recollection that a lot of folks made the trip to Los Angeles for that launch party.

MRM