Freedom Communications Inc. Chief Executive Scott Flanders has taken the top job at Playboy Enterprises Inc. after weeks of speculation about a possible move.
The announcement comes after a five-month search by Playboy’s board.
“I look forward to working with Hugh Hefner, David (Chemerow) and the employee team to take Playboy to the next level,” Flanders said in a release.
Playboy also announced the appointment of Chemerow, a former senior vice president and chief financial officer of Georgia-based Olympus Media LLC, an digital interactive firm, as non-executive chairman.
The news follows a report in the Business Journal last month that Flanders was among several finalists for the top job at struggling Playboy. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that a deal was near.
Flanders has been Freedom? chief executive for the past three years plus. He’s set to leave June 30 and start at Playboy on July 1.
Freedom didn’t offer word on a possible replacement for Flanders.
The company owns the Orange County Register, other newspapers, Web sites, magazines and TV stations.
Flanders has spent the past year or so working with Freedom’s creditors as its financial results fell below terms initially agreed to with lenders.
In April, a group of lenders extended until Dec. 31 a deadline for the company to meet credit terms it technically defaulted on in September.
Freedom went into technical default on terms agreed to with lenders last fall after its declining 12-month profits put its debt at more than five times profits.
As part of the waiver, the company said it prepaid some principal payments due this year as well as an amendment fee.
There has been talk about Freedom considering bankruptcy among other options.
?e have other alternatives, which doesn? mean it? impossible. It is possible, but unlikely.?Flanders told the Business Journal in March.
