11-06-2005, 10:06 AM
I'm not completely sure if this is news to the forum because the source is two days old, so if this has already been posted here I'm sorry, I poked around but couldn't find it anywhere. Anyways, I was reading the Friday November 4th European edition of the Financial Times and came across the following article:
Gaming bids for Empire Online
The online poker market took a new twist yesterday as PartyGaming made an approach to buy rival Empire Online in a move that would give it control of even more of the chips in the online gambling world.
PartyGaming, which operates PartyPoker.com, confirmed that it had made a preliminary, non-binding approach to Empire, which issued a profits warning in October after PartyGaming changed its relationship with "skin" partners, prompting a collapse in the value of Empire's shares.
Under the terms of its previous agreement with PartyGaming, Empire would direct players to its rival's online poker room and take a share of the "rake", or fees paid by players.
Although PartyGaming still allows third-party companies to use its software, it has moved all the players that go into its poker room via its own website to a separate operating platform that allows the players access to its other online gambling products.
The move appears to have been successful as the Gibralter-based company said in an October trading update for the third quarter that poker revenues had increased 10 per cent since th split.
Empire said yesterday that it had received an offer for its entire share capital but according to PartyGaming the terms of any offer would be determined by the outcome of due diligence, the prospects for Empire's busines and a number of other matierial pre-conditions.
Prospects for the volatile internet gambling sector look good in spite of the steep fall in share prices in recent months.
Article ends...
Did Party dump Empire in October so they could buy them at a reduced price in November after destroying their business? That's a level of business savvy I never would have thought them capable of, which means it was probably an accident. This makes me wonder if Empire rakeback will continue to be possible if they reunite with Party (although the article doesn't explicitly say that Empire will return to the Party network). I'm playing on other sites right now but if it's as easy as it was before I'll probably go back.
Gaming bids for Empire Online
The online poker market took a new twist yesterday as PartyGaming made an approach to buy rival Empire Online in a move that would give it control of even more of the chips in the online gambling world.
PartyGaming, which operates PartyPoker.com, confirmed that it had made a preliminary, non-binding approach to Empire, which issued a profits warning in October after PartyGaming changed its relationship with "skin" partners, prompting a collapse in the value of Empire's shares.
Under the terms of its previous agreement with PartyGaming, Empire would direct players to its rival's online poker room and take a share of the "rake", or fees paid by players.
Although PartyGaming still allows third-party companies to use its software, it has moved all the players that go into its poker room via its own website to a separate operating platform that allows the players access to its other online gambling products.
The move appears to have been successful as the Gibralter-based company said in an October trading update for the third quarter that poker revenues had increased 10 per cent since th split.
Empire said yesterday that it had received an offer for its entire share capital but according to PartyGaming the terms of any offer would be determined by the outcome of due diligence, the prospects for Empire's busines and a number of other matierial pre-conditions.
Prospects for the volatile internet gambling sector look good in spite of the steep fall in share prices in recent months.
Article ends...
Did Party dump Empire in October so they could buy them at a reduced price in November after destroying their business? That's a level of business savvy I never would have thought them capable of, which means it was probably an accident. This makes me wonder if Empire rakeback will continue to be possible if they reunite with Party (although the article doesn't explicitly say that Empire will return to the Party network). I'm playing on other sites right now but if it's as easy as it was before I'll probably go back.