There are some pretty bizarre entertainment/niche media companies: International Fight League (OTC BB: IFLI) and World Poker Tour Enterprises (NASDAQ: WPTE) come to mind. Last night I stumbled upon another one to add to that list: National Lampoon (AMEX: NLN). The brand is best known for the classic movie Animal House, but has been in decline of late.
In June of this year, The New York Times did a story on the company's efforts to revive itself. The Times writes that "has run on little more than fumes, licensing its name to dozens of movies that failed spectacularly while producing few of its own. The company has not published the magazine that first made it famous in nearly 10 years."
But now the company is going to back to producing its own movies, something it hasn't done since the early 1990's. According to Alexa, the National Lampoon website has seen its traffic spike in recent weeks.
CEO Daniel Laikin owns about 40% of the company, so he has strong incentives to make the rebirth of the brand a success and if he does, shareholders could see some very nice rewards.
The company hasn't turned a profit in some time and appears to be in the early stages of its attempted comeback. But with a market cap of under $16 million, it may be worth keeping an eye on in case it finally does get its act together.
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