Following up on last week's article, “BETandWIN Aims for Online Poker Greatness with Ongame Takeover Initiative," BETandWIN announced this weekend that it had inked a Share Purchase Agreement for a 100 percent stake in online poker solutions provider Ongame. If all goes as planned, the acquisition is expected to be completed in early 2006. The acquisition price agreed upon is 5.37 times Ongame's net revenues for the current fiscal year, or approximately €473.6 million (~$569 million) in total.

The success of the transaction is subject to the receipt of regulatory approval and merger control clearances for the deal, as well as the generation of sufficient funds to finance the takeover. In addition, for the acquisition to go according to plan, Ongame's revenues for 2005 may not fall below €88.19 million (~$105 million), with an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) of at least €25.2 million (~$30 million).

According to Manfred Bodner, Co-CEO of BETandWIN, both companies will continue operating under their existing management teams, at least initially. Regarding the integration of resources, he also said, “We will of course quickly address how to best harmonize our combined marketing efforts whilst we study how most efficiently to combine our human and technical resources."

Source:  Poker777 Staff

Sunday, 18 December 2005