There are new details on Regent Releasing's bid to buy The Advocate and Out.

San Francisco Business Times informs us that Regent, which owns gay network here!, gave PlanetOut an initial $500,000 to seal the deal, but the final sale will total $6 million in cash - far cheaper than we anticipated.

The deal now gives PlanetOut more time to focus on its websites, which have been underachieving over the past few years:

PlanetOut publishes magazines like Out and Advocate, but wants to return its focus to its web sites gay.com and planetout.com, which have been contributing a smaller percentage of its revenue recently.

The company's online segment has been contributing less to its revenue for each of the last three years. In 2005 it accounted for 87 percent, in 2006 54 percent, and in 2007 51 percent. Magazine publishing's portion of total revenue rose in each of those years, from 13 percent in 2005 to 46 percent in 2006 and 49 percent in 2007.

No wonder rival Window Media wanted the titles so badly. We don't know what went wrong, but we know the company - publishers of Genre - made and lost its own bid for the gay glossies.

It's been a little over two months since gay media giant PlanetOut put itself on the auction block. So, what's happening with the company?

First and foremost, book wholesaler Bookazine snatched up a piece of the company's Publishers Distributing Company, which includes Bruno Gmunder Verlag and Starbooks Press.

Meanwhile, PlanetOut's magazines, including The Advocate and Out, remain the big mystery, with sources telling us more people were interested in a buy than executives anticipated.

While nothing's set in stone, there are murmurs that Regent Entertainment, which owns queer cable channel here!, has been circling the gay glossies. One speculator described a sale as "imminent".

Any one out there hearing more details on these developments?