Nothing gets the corporate rumor mill cranking like a sale. Just ask the staffers at laddie magazine empire Dennis Publishing, where a new owner is expected to be announced any minute now.

With final bids already placed, employees at the home of Maxim, Stuff, and Blender (as well as The Week, which won't be part of the sale) are furiously swapping intelligence—much of it hearsay, and some of it no doubt true. After the jump, the latest rumors surrounding the Dennis sale and its aftermath, ranked in descending order of likelihood ...

1. Stephen Colvin, Dennis's president, will get walking papers
With former Wenner Media majordomo Kent Brownridge widely expected to acquire Dennis (with Quadrangle Partners supplying the cash), Colvin's exit looks like a fait accompli. Brownridge is said to be looking to run Dennis in a hands-on manner—"He wants to actually be in the office," says one insider—making Colvin thoroughly redundant.

2. Maxim publisher Rob Gregory will also get the boot
Sure, Maxim will still need a publisher, no matter who owns it. But Brownridge is said to dislike Gregory, who worked for him as publisher of Rolling Stone before joining Maxim. (One version of events has Gregory catching early wind of his own firing from there and skipping out just in time.) Look for Brownridge to install his own guy.

3. Stuff will shut down
Essentially a flanking brand, Stuff has never made much profit, and its raison d'être—to keep FHM from gaining a foothold in the U.S.—is moot now that FHM has evaporated. At least one of the parties involved in the bidding has made no secret of its intention to fold Stuff and roll its circulation into one of the other titles.

4. Maxim's editor in chief Jimmy Jellinek will go the way of Colvin and Gregory
A well-informed source claims Brownridge has already begun sounding out other men's magazine editors to see if they'd be willing to take over for Jellinek at Maxim. While this could well be the case, several editors who are normally short-listed for this sort of thing say they haven't gotten the call.

5. Owner Felix Dennis is calling off the sale after a last-second change of heart
This one's hard to see. Sure, Dennis is as capricious as they come, and fond of his ownerly prerogatives. And sure, he has a history of dipping a toe in the water, sale-wise, only to pull back after realizing no one shares his view of Dennis Publishing's value. But it's one thing to flake out on informal discussions. It's another thing to hire an investment bank and go through multiple rounds of bidding. If Dennis were to bail on the sale now, he would have a hard time getting anyone to come to the table when he has his next change of heart.