{"id":31015,"date":"2015-09-04T14:45:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T21:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=31015"},"modified":"2015-09-04T14:48:19","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T21:48:19","slug":"bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Bwin.party Goes to GVC Holdings, 888 Throws in the Towel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Philip
Bwin.party Chairman Philip Yea is naturally all smiles, now that a deal with acquirer GVC Holdings is finally wrapping up. (Image: Ben Gurr\/thetimes.co.uk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bwin.party has accepted a ring, and it’s a honker. At long last, suitor\u00a0GVC Holdings has won the heart of bwin.party with a $1.6 billion bid. Long-time rival 888 Holdings<\/a> says it is no longer willing to contest the outcome, and has walked away.<\/p>\n

888 officially threw in the towel on Friday, stating that it would not attempt to sweeten an improved, undisclosed offer submitted to the bwin board over the weekend. Instead, it would give up pursuit and remain focused on increasing its shareholder value through growth strategies.<\/p>\n

“The 888 board has concluded that, as a result of its own extensive due diligence on bwin.party, it cannot see sufficient value in bwin.party to warrant a revision to its offer,” read the statement.<\/p>\n

The bwin board has now accepted the GVC offer and recommended its adoption to its shareholders, according to bwin chairman Philip Yea<\/a>. That put an end to an eight-month-long battle of bid and counterbid between the two online gaming giants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis has been a long and necessarily protracted process,\u201d said Yea in a conference call today. \u201cWe were balancing some very fine points at the margin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Split<\/h2>\n

Yea said that the board had polled company shareholders over the course of the week and found opinion to be evenly split between the two offers. However, a significant group of shareholders were willing to support the board in their preference for GVC.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that basis, you cannot please all the shareholders and we hope that they will support us because it is in these circumstances that you need the board to show leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yea added that ultimately the GVC bid was favored not just because it was higher, but also because the company has a strong record of integrating acquisitions, as it did with Sportingbet in 2013. GVC is also targeting higher annual cost savings of $140 million compared with $78m that had been projected by the 888 offer.<\/p>\n

888 Wanted Player Migration<\/h2>\n

888 had wanted to migrate bwin\u2019s customers to its own software platform, a fact that had concerned the bwin board. The company had experienced difficulties of integration and player migration following its merger with Party Gaming in 2011, which further added to its hesitation to go down that road again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a long drawn out process,\u201d Kenny Alexander, GVC CEO told the Financial Times<\/em>. \u201cI knew they had to raise their price, but when I heard rumors that we were still ahead I was very confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a level playing field after we took away the complexities [of the Amaya bid] and satisfied their concerns. I thought the higher price would win.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it’s not all chocolate and roses at the engagement party. CEO Yea has already warned that there will be some staff cuts to the newly combined company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bwin.party has accepted a ring, and it’s a honker. At long last, suitor\u00a0GVC Holdings has won the heart of bwin.party with a $1.6 billion bid. Long-time rival 888 Holdings says it is no longer willing to contest the outcome, and has walked away. 888 officially threw in the towel on Friday, stating that it would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":31024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBwin.party Goes to GVC Holdings, 888 Throws in the Towel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bwin.party finally decides to accept GVC Holding\u2019s $1.6 billion offer, and rival suitor 888 concedes defeat.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bwin.party Goes to GVC Holdings, 888 Throws in the Towel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bwin.party finally decides to accept GVC Holding\u2019s $1.6 billion offer, and rival suitor 888 concedes defeat.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-04T21:45:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-04T21:48:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Philip-Yea-bwin.party-chairman-GVC-buyout.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"413\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/\",\"name\":\"Bwin.party Goes to GVC Holdings, 888 Throws in the Towel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Philip-Yea-bwin.party-chairman-GVC-buyout.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-04T21:45:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-04T21:48:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Bwin.party finally decides to accept GVC Holding\u2019s $1.6 billion offer, and rival suitor 888 concedes defeat.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bwin-party-bought-by-gvc-holdings-888-out\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Philip-Yea-bwin.party-chairman-GVC-buyout.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Philip-Yea-bwin.party-chairman-GVC-buyout.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":413,\"caption\":\"Bwin.party CEO Philip Yea is naturally all smiles, now that a deal with acquirer GVC Holdings is finally wrapping up. 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