NEW YORK — The publisher of Playboy magazine has agreed to accept a sweetened buyout offer from a partnership headed by founder Hugh Hefner, allowing the original playboy to fulfill his plans to take the company private.

Hefner, 84, is Playboy’s largest shareholder with about 70 percent of Playboy Enterprises Inc.’s voting shares and 28 percent of the nonvoting stock. By leading a buyout for a larger portion, the man known for his penchant for silk pajamas and young blond women is betting that the racy magazine he launched in 1953 can still reap profits in the digital age.

As part of the deal completed Sunday night, Scott Flanders will remain Playboy CEO and keep what the company called a “significant” equity investment in Playboy, the company said.

It will also eliminate the costs of being a public company and allow Playboy to “take a long-term view and focus on what is best for our businesses and not on the near-term earnings demands of our public shareholders,” Flanders said.

A tender offer is expected to begin by Jan. 21 and the deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter.