Report: 888 Holdings rejected $890 million takeover bid from Playtech

[The Buzz]

Back in July, 888 Holdings turned down a £700 million offer from software provider Playtech, which had proposed an acquisition at 156p (about $1.97) per share on the London Stock Exchange, according to a Sunday Times Report.

The report valued the company at around £300 million (about $379 million), contributing to 888 Holdings' removal from the FTSE 250 last week.

From the article:

The revelations will heap fresh pressure on Lord (Jonathan) Mendelsohn, the Labour peer who chairs 888’s board, as he struggles to arrest a plunging share price. Since he and his board spurned Playtech’s approach, 888’s shares have fallen to 70.6p, valuing the business at little more than £300 million.

Mendelsohn, previously Labour’s business and international trade spokesman and a leading New Labour adviser during the 2000s, has failed to stop 888’s shares being routed since joining as chairman in March 2021.

They have fallen about 80 per cent since then, and the appointment in October of a new chief executive, the gambling industry veteran Per Widerström, failed to stop the company being booted out of the FTSE 250 index last week.

888 Holdings paid nearly £2 billion to acquire William Hill in 2022. Alongside its own brands, 888 also owns Scandinavian bookmaker Mr Green and a betting joint venture with the American magazine Sports Illustrated.

Playtech is largely a “white label” gambling technology business, used by brands to run their gaming websites, but it also has a leading Italian betting brand of its own, Snai.

One person familiar with Playtech’s thinking suggested that it could combine 888’s brands with Snai, then hive off Playtech’s business-to-business operation as a separate company.

It is understood to have identified up to £170 million in possible savings from integrating the businesses, according to City sources, although some in the Play-tech camp did not recognise that figure.

Read more here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7...51a9962fc6a447

[ocreditor]

Wow.. If this deal had gone through then a new mega giant would have been created in our industry