Alex V. Henderson Philadelphia , PA vixenatr ixx gmail. Going Public. From computer technology to pharmaceuticals to fast food, publicly traded stock is the norm for a wide variety of industries. But there is one industry in which publicly traded stocks are the exception instead of the rule: adult entertainment. Erotica providers are not absent from Wall Street altogether.
Walters ; accountant Joshua M. O'Malley Jr. The owners of the companies tend to be the sort of people who don't like having a boss; they don't like working for someone else. And when you become a publicly traded company, you have to report to someone else; you have to report to shareholders. You have to have certified audits; you have to have annual reports.
You have to give public access to your books, and I just don't think that sits well with a lot of people in the adult entertainment industry. All that kind of stuff is very antithetical to the typical adult industry entrepreneur, who tends to be more of a creative, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants person who is willing to take a lot of risks. There are some flamboyant and outspoken adult directors and talent out there, but they're promoters of the industry to begin with, and some of the more savvy business people who are really profiting from the industry are very behind-the-scenes.
You don't know who they are, and they don't want you to know who they are. I would think that if you asked a lot of adult companies whether or not they wanted to go public, the majority of them would say, 'Absolutely not. While Plan B's O'Malley said he understands the reasons why most adult-oriented businesses are not publicly traded, he also believes that more public trading of adult entertainment companies could be beneficial for the industry as a whole.
But O'Malley's enthusiasm for the industry was strong, and starting Plan B gave him the freedom to pursue as many adult-oriented clients as he wanted. Walters pointed to politics as a reason why having more publicly traded adult companies could be advantageous for the industry. American voters, Walters said, may be less likely to vote for politicians who stridently attack the adult entertainment industry if they have more of a financial stake in it. If you have somebody investing in an oil drilling company, you're going to be more likely to vote for the folks who favor more oil drilling.
