WPT Gets Better Offer

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WPT Enterprises Inc. said that a British company will buy its assets, including the World Poker Tour franchise, for more than $12 million in cash plus a share of future revenue.

The new offer, announced late Monday, kills a private equity deal for $9 million that had been announced earlier this month.

Peerless Media Ltd, a unit of PartyGaming’s ElectraWorks Ltd., will purchase WPT for $12.3 million in cash. PartyGaming is WPT’s largest customer and accounted for 30 percent of its revenue for the six months of this year.

In addition, Peerless Media will pay a minimum of $3 million over the next three years in revenue sharing. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

“PartyGaming has been an important partner for a number of years and we are confident that they will be an excellent manager of our brands in the future,” Chief Executive Steve Lipscomb said in a statement.

WPT Enterprises said it terminated an earlier agreement with Gamynia Ltd., which had offered to buy the assets for $9 million plus a portion of future earnings. That deal did not include the company’s television library.

WPTE, which plans to get into another business line, will retain its cash and cash equivalents, investments in debt securities and license revenues from certain sponsorship deals for the seventh season of the World Poker Tour.

Shares were unchanged at $1.05 in midday trading on the Nasdaq.

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