The billionaire proprietor of OnlyFans has quietly put the booming smut web site up on the market — however the London-based firm is struggling to discover a purchaser due to its X-rated enterprise mannequin, The Publish has realized.
Leonid Radvinsky, a 40-something laptop programmer who purchased OnlyFans in 2019, is reportedly trying to unload the money-minting platform, three sources near the state of affairs mentioned — regardless of earnings which have pushed his internet price to $3.8 billion, in keeping with Forbes.
A US citizen who, as a baby, immigrated to Chicago from Odessa, Ukraine, Radvinsky studied economics at Northwestern College and now lives in a Miami penthouse together with his spouse, in keeping with a supply. He reaped an eye-popping $472 million in dividends from OnlyFans in the course of the fiscal yr ended November 2023, in keeping with public data.
That’s practically the entire $485 million in earnings generated that yr by the corporate, which is claimed to have about 40 staff. From 2021 to 2023, his complete payouts ballooned to greater than $1 billion from OnlyFans’ holding firm, Fenix Worldwide Ltd., in keeping with the last-available UK monetary filings, first cited by Bloomberg. Radvinsky is the only proprietor of Fenix.
An OnlyFans spokeswoman confirmed that the corporate is up on the market.
“OnlyFans is a revolutionary platform which continues to lead the creator economy. As with any business of this scale it is natural that we are open to discussions about how we continue to build on our success,” she informed The Publish on Wednesday.
Regardless of their tantalizing earnings, the filth consider porn companies typically limits their value tags to a comparatively modest three to 5 instances Ebitda — a carefully watched investing metric, a supply conversant in the area mentioned.
That might peg OnlyFans at between $1.46 billion and $2.42 billion — a stiff premium within the porn sector that makes it tough to discover a deep-pocketed purchaser, insiders mentioned.
“You’re looking to find billionaires and trying to sell it as not an adult content company but just a platform like X that allows adult content,” the supply mentioned. “But I think most people right now view OnlyFans as an adult content company.”
OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair mentioned 59% of income comes from creators promoting add-on companies like pay per view messages and stay streams, whereas 41% come from subscriptions, in keeping with a video revealed by the Wall Road Journal final December.
The corporate takes a 20% lower from its 4 million creators, who make content material for 300 million subscribers. The location shouldn’t be on App shops so no income is shared with Apple or Google. Two-thirds of its income is generated from US clients, $863 million of $1.3 billion, in keeping with the UK submitting.
Different grownup content material websites offered lately have didn’t arouse main investor curiosity. Pornhub — the nineteenth most visited web site on the planet, in keeping with SimilarWeb — was in the marketplace for about three years earlier than lastly discovering a purchaser in 2023, the business supply mentioned.
A personal fairness agency, Moral Capital Companions, was fashioned by traders who wished to stay nameless earlier than finishing the deal. Neither Moral Capital nor Pornhub’s former proprietor MindGeek revealed the ultimate value, however the business supply mentioned he knew it fell properly in need of $1 billion.
Different non-public fairness companies weren’t fascinated with Pornhub as a result of most increase cash from state pensions and different traders who will not be allowed to personal grownup content material corporations, and media companies didn’t need the porn taint, the supply added.
Playboy went public in 2021 with listed clean examine firm Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. Plby Group traded at $1.47 a share on Wednesday, a $138 million market cap. At its peak within the Seventies, the corporate based by Hugh Hefner was price $200 million, about $1.6 billion when adjusted for inflation.
Visa and Mastercard in 2021 and 2022 lower off funds to Pornhub because of allegations of unlawful content material like movies of kid intercourse abuse. Pornhub then shut down Pornub Premium and turned extra to advertisements for its free web site.
Bank card corporations cost greater than a ten% charge for grownup content material websites to course of transactions however thus far has charged much less to OnlyFans, the business supply mentioned.
Blair had informed the Journal that the corporate was working arduous to crack down on minors both being creators or clients.
“Absolutely there is risk associated with [our business] but there’s often the same risk associated with general social media platforms as there is with OnlyFans,” she mentioned.
Radvinsky purchased OnlyFans from Tim Stokely and his household, which launched the location in 2016 as an outlet for musicians and influencers. A yr later he lifted its ban on porn and the corporate took off.
OnlyFans exploded in the course of the COVID pandemic. In 2021, Radvinsky briefly banned sexually express content material after getting strain from monetary establishments who had been reluctant to course of bank card funds. He reversed course days later.
OnlyFans depends on Part 230 of the Communications Decency Act to guard itself legally from the content material generated by its 4 million creators claiming it isn’t liable for movies it doesn’t produce.
“The key to success was plausible deniability,” the business supply mentioned.
However now the query is rising that OnlyFans not realizing what creators are doing is willful ignorance that is probably not protected by regulation, the business supply mentioned.
“The pressure on the industry to monitor their sites is getting worse and worse,” the business supply mentioned.
