Playboy Entertainment Group Fires Three Executives

The Playboy Entertainment Group fired three of its top executives over the weekend, according to a recent story in Variety.

Sol Weisel, executive VP of production and operation, Dan Smith, VP of production, and Tom Furr, VP of on-air promotion have all been terminated from their positions following a disappointing fourth-quarter stock report.

Playboy spokesman Matt Kalinowski told AVN.com that the company has no comment on the matter due to the fact that they are prohibited from discussing personnel matters.

Playboy Enterprises’ stock was downgraded last month, citing fault with the TV division’s difficulty to make sales through the more stable subscription video-on-demand over pay-per-view.

Michael Savner, media analyst for Bank of America, told Variety that he downgraded Playboy's stock because even the company's management "does not expect to see domestic-TV revenue growth in 2007, due to increased competition and ongoing difficulties with the VOD transition."