Will Playboy (PLA) get bought out?

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:PLA) is up 25% today, as rumors are churning about a potential buyout of the struggling company.

According to two people close to the situation, Playboy is in talks to sell itself to Iconix Brand Group Inc.

How much would the company sell for?

Playboy currently has 26.91M cash on hand and 103M in debt, leaving a 75M debt load on the balance sheet.

I think Playboy would be a steal at $5 a share, which would be a market cap of $167.35 million.

Various sources on the internets reveal that the Playboy mansion alone is valued at $100M.

Then there is the brand.This article by Michael Brush in MSN Money probably says it best.

People around the world know the Playboy rabbit logo. "'Excellent brand' is an understatement," says Gabe Fried of Streambank, a company that specializes in valuing intellectual assets.

How much is the bunny's brand worth? For help with that, I turned to experts on brand valuation at Boston's Gordon Brothers Group, which regularly purchases consumer brands. Along with some partners, Gordon Brothers recently bought the Polaroid brand for about $88 million. It also owns the Sharper Image and Linens 'n Things brands.

Based on Playboy's current annual licensing revenue of about $39 million, Gordon Brothers' Ken Frieze estimates the Playboy brand would sell for at least $150 million. But Frieze is being conservative, assuming flat revenue growth from licensing fees.

The article goes on to estimate PLA's worth at $500M. So will they get bought out? It seems likely, given that the current market cap is so far below PLA's worth.

Playboy declined to comment on the report.