Strip club gets new parent company

One of the Triangle's most prominent strip clubs will soon have a new corporate parent.

VCG Holding, which owns The Men's Club of Raleigh, agreed to be purchased by another publicly traded company, Rick's Cabaret International.

The combined company will operate 38 clubs in more than a dozen states and form the "largest publicly traded operator of upscale gentlemen's clubs in North America," the companies said in a prepared statement.

Combined, the two companies had revenue of $131.3 million during the year ending Sept. 30, 2009. The companies expect to reduce legal, accounting and other expenses associated with running two publicly traded companies.

VCG bought the Raleigh club, previously known as Thee Dollhouse, for about $10.1 million in 2007 and changed its name to The Men's Club.

Texas-based Rick's Cabaret will buy Colorado-based VCG using its stock, and the value of the deal will be based on a formula using Rick's closing stock price for 20 trading days. The deal will value VCG's stock between $2.20 and $3.80 a share. VCG's shares jumped 40 cents to $2.59 today. The stock is up 56 percent in the past year.

Staff writer Alan M. Wolf