I thought at first that it might be a bluff to inflate the stock price... but that would only help for a few weeks until it's clear that he isn't going to buy. At which point the stock would plummet to even lower than it is today as people would see that Baazov is desperate. So I think the buyout attempt is legit.

I don't see how this would affect the US entry as the regulators would still be doing their oversight regardless of it being private or not. Mind you the list of investors might be an issue depending on who's financing this.

I had the same thought.

With no details on who is gonna finance this latest saga in the life of AYA, seems sort of sketchy.

Pretty interesting to announce day before ICE (large gaming show in London. The euro verion of G2E with more focus on online)

Sounds like he will need some friends willing to right a check for $2 ba-billion, and double that if current debt holders are not in agreement.

much awaits

Today is an excellent day to start shorting Amaya stock imo. Anyone who holds any should sell today with these rises and get out whilst they can.

I agree that this proposed deal will not actually happen. It;s just a tactic to try and control the share price (which never works).

Edit : Where's bigsalmon? was sure he would have popped up by now.

Where is he getting this money? This doesn't make sense. Amaya had to borrow a ton of money to buy Pokerstars initially. Now he has enough cash to take over the entire company? Hopefully player funds are still segregated...

Must be a large group of investors, but why couldn't he do this initially when purchasing Pokerstars?

I'd imagine the original lenders involved in the Stars acquisition would also be involved in some form or another with any new loan.

I heard Dan Negrano is gonna help Baazov with some money to buy Stars

Good memory. (I have long questioned the "need" for Party to exit the US market without even trying to challenge coverage of poker under the UIGEA. The "exit now"/don't challenge anything" strategy torched abut $7 billion in shareholder equity overnight and made room for Stars, Tilt and other operators like UB and Absolute to grab market share in the US immediately.)

Both outside Directors and the new CEO had the power to exit, but the effect of a marriage to the public capital markets on company flexibility is without doubt. Where/how the buyout financing will be sourced will be an interestng read, the 2006 Stars was already generating self-funding from operations and just expanded its position. Putting together a buyout package is a whole different challenge.

popcorn, ready. This news will be a hot topic at the ICE Gaming conference in London this week.

+1, this potential longer term focus is an additional benefit to flexibility of not having constatnt public turmoil about this quarters numbers ....

The Stars database is itself a golden asset, for all sorts of non-poker ventures ..... some of which will clearly be longer term than Q3 2016 for example.

Some publication had an interview with a big i-gaming executive back around 2011-12, who said that if Stars were eventually let back into the US market, Party's decision to unconditionally withdraw from the US post-UIGEA would turn out to have been among the most costly financial mistakes in modern history.

The AmayaStars story is such a crazy soap opera that I wouldn't be massively surprised if Mark Scheinberg is coming back to take Baazov's job in season 3.

steal money from all the players.
buy majority of the company.
ez game.

Why don`t you stick to improving your pokerpro tables and not post in nvg anymore? your posts are embarassing.

I don't believe you know what most of the words you used mean.

There are Securities rules that limit/prevent what you suggest, and it can't be done by certain holders acting alone or in concert without notice to the Market.

Countdown to Bustov?

If David uses this opportunity to step off of the gas on Amaya being a ruthless shareholder/bank loan paying, fu consumer centric company then this is good

im sceptical

sorry, sold that company over a year ago. I have some extra time on my hands.

NVG will persevere with or without my posts, but thanks.

Gotta get that thread title changed, this was a non binding offer, the title is nowhere close to happening yet.

That's exactly what I said, their lenders & board would have to agree with this & I'm sure regulators would have input as well. Far from a sure thing.

Agreed, not only is it not yet even a solid offer but the board would still have to agree to it...

One inaccuracy...it wasn't UIEGA that halted the early attempt by Stars to go public, it was the comments of Richard Segal in September 2005 that stopped it.

so baazov and all the pi**ed off sne highrollers have made a deal and are chipping in together to buy amaya stars just so they can fix the rewards program and get higher rakeback for themselves. problem solved well played.

"David Baazov (Amaya CEO) registers notice of intent to bid for acquisition of Amaya (PokerStars)"

at least baazov mades sne

Blast from the past...
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...iness.gambling

The stock price nearing equilibrium to the expected sale price was inevitable. As far as it being a bluff, it would be a poor one at that and be subject to inquiry.

The main impetus behind an attempt to make the company private would be to alleviate revenue targets from analyst forecasts and to eliminate the disclosure of insider trading.

As far as how it affects the players, it should actually benefit them in the long-term. The pressure to eliminate anything that affects the bottom line and create negative press (Supernova anyone?) should be much less of an issue.

Long-term I see this as a power play to position itself for re-entry into the U.S. market with a republican controlled executive office and congress. The time would be ripe for Sands or MGM to become a private investor and push the politicians and lobbyists in favor of widespread regulation.

Without the U.S. market, growth worldwide is dead. We have the biggest untapped market and marketing apparatus available especially with the WSOP and ESPN in our own backyard