NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Playboy Enterprises Inc., the men's magazine publisher, is in talks to sell itself to Iconix Brand Group Inc., according to two people close to the situation. Playboys stock jumped as much as 66 percent.

Iconix, the owner of the Candies and London Fog clothing brands, has looked at Chicago-based Playboys finances, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the talks arent public. The discussions may not lead to a transaction, the person said.

Playboy rose 33 percent to $3.80 at 11:50 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after touching $4.75. Before yesterday, Playboy's market value had dropped to about $100 million after the stock fell 76 percent in five years and circulation at the namesake magazine declined. The company had $103 million in long-term financing obligations at the end of September.

Spokespeople for Iconix and Playboy declined to comment.

Playboy's management has been looking for a buyer since Scott Flanders was appointed as chief executive officer in June, one person close to the situation said. Flanders, the former CEO of Freedom Communications Inc., replaced Christie Hefner, who had run Playboy since 1988 and is the daughter of founder Hugh Hefner.

Hugh Hefner, 83, has a controlling stake, with about 70 percent of Class A voting shares and 28 percent of the Class B shares.

Playboy shares had advanced 32 percent this year before today. Iconix declined 29 cents to $11.86 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, giving the company a market value of about $847 million.

Iconix licenses Danskin, Mossimo and the rest of its consumer brands to retailers and manufacturers. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Neil Cole said in October the company has $200 million to $300 million available for acquisitions. The company bought a controlling stake in Ecko brands this month and made an unsuccessful bid for outdoor-clothing chain Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc. earlier this year.

Cole founded the New York-based company in 1992. Revenue has more than doubled in the past two years, from $80.7 million in 2006 to $216.8 million last year.

In addition to its magazine, Playboy licenses products bearing its bunny logo, and creates videos for its website and cable-television networks. Licensing revenue in the first nine months of the year declined 14 percent to $28.1 million.

Playboy's first issue appeared in December 1953 and featured photos of Marilyn Monroe. The magazine garnered a following for its fiction, including selections by Margaret Atwood and Vladimir Nabokov, and American football coverage, as well as its photos of nude women. The company ran a chain of branded clubs, staffed by women dressed in bunny outfits, as well as a premium cable channel and branded videos and DVDs.

The magazine's circulation dropped 9.2 percent to 2.45 million in the six months through June, compared with a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Industrywide, consumer magazine circulation fell 1.2 percent in the period.