Playboy's board of directors revealed in a government regulatory filing on Monday it has turned down a higher price offer from the owner of its chief rival magazine Penthouse, indicating the bid's value was less than that of founder Hugh Hefner's all-cash proposal.

FriendFinder Networks, the publisher behind Penthouse, had offered to buy Playboy Enterprises for $6.25 per share in a mix of cash and stock.

On January 10, Playboy said it planned to go private in a deal lead by Hefner along with Rizvi Traverse Management LLC that valued the company at $207 million or $6.15 per share. FriendFinder Networks had placed an offer valuing the company at $210 million.

Raine Securities, the financial advisor to Playboy's special committee, determined that because FriendFinder was private, its shares were difficult to value, according to the government regulatory filing.

Hefner, who controls the company with about a 70 percent stake of Playboy's Class A common stock and 28 percent of its Class B stock, offered to take his company private in July for $5.50 per share. That bid was countered by the owner of Penthouse.

The board had entertained selling part of its assets, including its adult TV and digital business units to FriendFinder Networks but the two sides could not reach an agreement after several meetings in the fall of 2010.

The filing reveals Hefner, who founded Playboy with $600 in 1953 with its first edition featuring a partially nude Marilyn Monroe and took it public in 1971, had been seeking a buyer for company since early 2009.

Lazard Freres & Co had contacted more than 40 strategic and financial buyers on behalf of Playboy during July and August of 2009.

Two parties bid on the company at a price range between $6 and $8 before negotiations fell apart in the fall of 2009.

Hefner made Playboy, known for its bunny ears logo and centerfolds, a symbol for the bachelor lifestyle.

Many men in the gray flannel suit years and Frank Sinatra "Rat Pack" years of the Eisenhower administration, as well as the 1960s, subscribed to the magazine based on that allure.

After the 1970s, Playboy began to fade. Hefner was forced to let go of trappings such as a private jet with a bedroom, a miniature disco and a kitchen, according to Steven Watts, author of "Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream."

Since, its investors, including Hefner, have seen the company's stock price fall in recent years as people turn from magazines to the Internet.

As recently as 1999, its shares were trading at more than $30 before falling to less than $2 in early 2009 during the financial crisis.

The tender offer began on Monday and will expire after 20 business days. More than 50 percent of the Class A and Class B shares outstanding -- roughly 22 million -- must be tendered and not withdrawn.