Online poker and gaming company Empire online announced yesterday that it had agreed to acquire certain properties related to online poker room Noble Poker, as well as online casino group Club Dice. Under the agreements, Empire plans to buy the Noble Poker brand and its intellectual property, in addition to Club Dice's business, assets and player base. Both transactions will cost Empire Online a total of about $40 million.

Both Noble Poker and Club Dice online casinos are powered by Playtech software, with Noble Poker incidentally being the biggest online poker operator on Playtech's poker network.

Empire Online Chief Executive Noam Lanir commented on the acquisition, saying, "We are delighted to have secured a deal to acquire these platforms, who operate some of the most highly regarded casino software in the industry. In Club Dice and Noble Poker we have bought running businesses which achieve a strategic objective of diversifying our base of technology providers."

These acquisitions come on the heels of Empire Online's recent float and a year of tremendous financial growth. Yesterday, the company announced that pretax profits in the first six months of 2005 increased by 88%, compared to the same period in the previous year.

Source:  Poker777 Staff

Tuesday, 02 August 2005