Playboy magazine, by the numbers

Playboy magazine is about to issue its final version with nude images. That issue hits newsstands Friday.

We thought it would be a good time to break down some of the numbers around the company and its famous publication.

The company had publicly traded stock from 1971 to 2011. In that timeframe, investors actually lost money, 48 percent of share price to be exact, according to the Los Angeles Times. And that's before you adjust for inflation. After a massive Internet-fueled peak in the late 1990s, the stock declined and never saw those heights again.

As far as circulation goes, it's been a similar story. The first issue was in December 1953, selling 53,991 copies. The top-selling issue was November 1972, at 7.16 million copies. And then it saw a real decline:
1975: 5.6 million circulation
2006: 3.0 million
2013: 1.2 million
2014: 0.96 million
2015: 0.82 million

The company makes about $65 million from licensing merchandise, and that represents about half the company's overall revenues. Here's a look at some recent revenue numbers:
2009: $240 million
2013: $135 million

The firm's big area is China, representing 40 percent of revenues. That's because so many people wore the company's logo on clothing, although there is no official Chinese version of the magazine

A 2013 story in The Wall Street Journal described the shrink in employee numbers, including a sizable amount at the famous mansion: "(New CEO) Mr. (Scott) Flanders has shrunk Playboy's staff from 585 when he arrived to 165 today, 65 of whom work in the famous Playboy Mansion where Mr. (Hugh) Hefner lives, as stipulated in the contract taking the company private."