A US investor group is reportedly in talks to buy adult content site OnlyFans for up to $8bn.
Billionaire Leonid Radvinsky, who lives in Miami, is the owner of London-headquartered parent company Fenix International and has claimed more than $1bn in corporate dividends from the firm since 2021.
Reuters reported that Los Angeles-based Forest Road Company is in talks to buy Fenix for $8bn, while an earlier New York Post report claimed that Radvinsky was struggling to sell the platform due to its close association with adult performers.
The NY Post put the potential sale figure at between $1.46-2.42bn.
The site was founded in 2016 by London-based Tim Stokely with his father Gus to give musicians and influencers a way of earning subscription revenue from fans. They sold a majority stake in Fenix International to Ukrainian-American entrepreneur Radvinsky in 2018.
A ban on adult content was lifted a year later and the site took off. However many high-profile content creators and celebrities outside the porn industry earn revenue from the site.
Tim Stokely continued to serve as CEO until December 2021, when Guy Stokely resigned from the firm. That year the site briefly banned sexually explicit content before quickly reversing the decision.
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Today it is said to employ around 40 people, with four million creators making content for 300m subscribers. Its most recent UK filing showed $1.3bn annual revenue, with $6.6bn payments going through the platform.
“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,” an OnlyFans spokeswoman told the NY Post.