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FTP Discussion Thread (Everything but big new news goes here. Cliffs in OP) FTP Discussion Thread (Everything but big new news goes here. Cliffs in OP)
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04-24-2012 , 12:42 PM
Quote:
Groupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success.
Ultimately, the deal failed due to two major issues.

The parties could not agree on a plan for repayment of ROW players.

GBT proposed a plan that would have resulted in immediate reinstatement of all ROW player balances, with a right to withdraw those funds over time, based on the size of the player balance and the extent of the player’s playing activity on the re-launched site. All players would have been permitted complete withdrawal of their balances, regardless of whether they played on the site, by a date certain, and 94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1. DOJ ultimately insisted on full repayment with right of withdrawal within 90 days for all players– a surprise demand made in the 11th hour, after months of good-faith negotiations by GBT.

The legal complications surrounding the deal – specifically, questions surrounding the legality of the forfeiture under non-US laws – also proved unresolvable.

All of the key assets of the FTP companies reside outside of the United States. A non-US court well might regard the purported forfeiture as a “fraudulent transaction” and declare it invalid or deem the acquirer of the assets responsible for all of those creditor obligations.
Given the $80 million purchase price, and the substantial amount of cash needed to relaunch FTP, those issues ultimately proved too substantial to overcome.

GBT is very conscious of the hopes it has created – among FTP employees that they will retain their jobs, among FTP players that they will recover their balances, and among the entire poker community that the world’s finest poker platform will be relaunched and bring a needed added element of competition to a world market that today is fully dominated by a single operator.
GBT cannot accept the end of those hopes.

For that reason, unless a concrete and legally viable solution is found in the very coming days to save the employees and repay the players of FTP, we will move to our own plan of action.

We understand from press reports that the DOJ may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the FTP assets.
If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with DOJ.

If a PokerStars acquisition of FTP means that all FTP players will be fully repaid immediately, we are very happy for the players, as their final and full repayment has always been our priority.

We only regret that such a deal would signal further consolidation of a poker market already dominated by a single player – an outcome that may raise antitrust concerns and that, in the long run, is probably not good for players and for the whole online poker industry.”
.
04-24-2012 , 12:45 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by cl72
So tapie certainly wasn't planning on paying row players any time soon... (if that was the sticking point)
94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1.

That includes you. Unless you have a few 100k on the site.

In any case this **** scares me. Poker stars is a rumor. GBT was a fact and I'm convinced they were serious. We have had many rumors (which never panned out) before obviously not at this level. I hope it's true.
04-24-2012 , 12:46 PM
That press release just sounds like sour grapes. "We were going to buy FTP and hold players' funds as long as we could, but the DoJ actually wanted people to be allowed to get their money out, so we had to bail. Now Stars will buy them and F them and the horse they rode in on."
04-24-2012 , 12:51 PM
An overwhelming amount of news in such a short span of time... If tapie just had of been more open with the struggles all along his stadium tour might have survived...
04-24-2012 , 12:52 PM
i wonder what tapie is now doing with his new companies and employees?
04-24-2012 , 12:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by josephthepimp
94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1.

That includes you. Unless you have a few 100k on the site.

In any case this **** scares me. Poker stars is a rumor. GBT was a fact and I'm convinced they were serious. We have had many rumors (which never panned out) before obviously not at this level. I hope it's true.
Very true I would have got my money... But tapie was only planning on paying out roughly a third of row funds right away

Not that it matters anymore.. And to be honest you're right, tapie holding onto some row cash for a year would have looked like an ok deal if stars falls through
04-24-2012 , 12:57 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by josephthepimp
94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1.

That includes you. Unless you have a few 100k on the site.
You really think 5.1% of the players had more than 100k on the site?

What's the line on the amount the 5.1% had? Gotta be somewhere between 50$ and 1k imo.
04-24-2012 , 12:58 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bukakeparty
i wonder what tapie is now doing with his new companies and employees?
Ha... All those people on three month contracts twiddling their thumbs...
04-24-2012 , 12:59 PM
Tapie was trying to work over the players as well as the doj. Stars knows what these sites are worth and jumped in and snatched it up with what appears to be a settlement fine as well. Stars is happy, players are happy and doj is happy. Also, been a couple sources that have said Tapie was not willing to cut the check for the 80M when he had his opportunity. GG Tapie, pretty sure this ends up much better for the players
04-24-2012 , 01:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunner171
You really think 5.1% of the players had more than 100k on the site?

What's the line on the amount the 5.1% had? Gotta be somewhere between 50$ and 1k imo.
Maybe 50k+ Whatever the cut off was. Many many account had under 50$. These forgotten accounts don't even have the minimum to cash out it's essentially free money for the site. These are all things the calculate and probably part of due diligence. I'm sure they had a model that worked for them as well as worked for most players (ROW players) can't speculate on US players.
04-24-2012 , 01:16 PM
So far reports are that, at least in the short term, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars will operate independently. No word on whether rakeback will remain at the new Full Tilt Poker (FTP2) or the status of affiliates. PartTimePoker will update as more news comes in.

http://www.parttimepoker.com/tapie-d...-to-the-rescue

To be honest I feel so much better about stars than tapie

Last edited by SGT RJ; 04-24-2012 at 04:58 PM.
04-24-2012 , 01:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by cl72
To be honest I feel so much better about stars than tapie
O RLY?
04-24-2012 , 01:25 PM
As far as getting paid, Stars has shown they can pay. Tapie is an unknown. So, I agree getting paid pack is better with Stars at the driver's seat. As for the future of poker, another big player for competition would have been nice. I'm in the USA, so whenever it's legal here, I think competition will naturally happen.
04-24-2012 , 01:51 PM
anyone else going to the strip club when we get paid? bottles on me bit****
04-24-2012 , 01:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by josephthepimp
Actually given the press release it looks like the DOJ slow rolled them...

All players would have been permitted complete withdrawal of their balances, regardless of whether they played on the site, by a date certain, and 94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1. DOJ ultimately insisted on full repayment with right of withdrawal within 90 days for all players– a surprise demand made in the 11th hour, after months of good-faith negotiations by GBT.
Its GBT's press release. OF COURSE its going to be written to appear that the failure is DOJs fault.

IMHO, I'll bet DOJ's version would look something like:
"Our position is that in order to release the frozen FT assets to GBT, which are primarily comprised of player balances we want assurance that these will be immediately returned to the owners."

GBT obviously tried ten ways to Tuesday to get out from that because they want a mechanism to retain customers in light of uncertainty, but in the end, DOJ held firm.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. But the fact is that we have all been freerolling on any deal since last April when the company was originally looted.

Personally if GBT were going to reopen for business but not actually give players complete access, then they haven't exactly been acting in good faith themselves and who knows what the future ACTUALLY held under them. A ponzi replaced by another ponzi is not the best case scenario. So I'm more encouraged today by mere rumours of a PS takeover to secure market share than I was by this mysterious benefactor equation. I understand the business logic of the former way more than the latter.

"Great Expectations" gives way to "Wall Street"
04-24-2012 , 01:54 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by cl72
To be honest I feel so much better about stars than tapie
I do agree....
04-24-2012 , 02:15 PM
Diamond Flush,

What's the deal?

Thanks.
04-24-2012 , 02:22 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blizzuff
I love the fact that after a year of listening to everyone go off about how America and the DOJ are selfish and evil and don't care about anybody but themselves ... etc.
I wonder if the DoJ will just drive down Broadway throwing cash off the back of a float to players lining the streets?

Can't help feeling in these recession-straightened times that there might be some hurdles for claimants who neglected to declare their pokers to the IRS.

Time enough yet for the DoJ to show its caring side
04-24-2012 , 02:48 PM
I think its important to note that the DOJ paying us was specific to the deal with Tapie. If the Stars talk is true it could be as easy as logging in and clicking withdraw....just like we did on stars.
04-24-2012 , 02:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by antneye
I think its important to note that the DOJ paying us was specific to the deal with Tapie. If the Stars talk is true it could be as easy as logging in and clicking withdraw....just like we did on stars.
ONE TIME
04-24-2012 , 02:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by antneye
I think its important to note that the DOJ paying us was specific to the deal with Tapie. If the Stars talk is true it could be as easy as logging in and clicking withdraw....just like we did on stars.
makeitso.jpg
04-24-2012 , 02:51 PM
^^ and with brick and mortar casinos and their lobbying it could get pretty competitive....
04-24-2012 , 02:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunner171
You really think 5.1% of the players had more than 100k on the site?

What's the line on the amount the 5.1% had? Gotta be somewhere between 50$ and 1k imo.
I'd set the line closer to $1,000-$1,500. There were probably a lot of phantom deposits that were able to increase their BR that way.
04-24-2012 , 02:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phatty
As far as getting paid, Stars has shown they can pay. Tapie is an unknown. So, I agree getting paid pack is better with Stars at the driver's seat. As for the future of poker, another big player for competition would have been nice. I'm in the USA, so whenever it's legal here, I think competition will naturally happen.
Exactly.
04-24-2012 , 02:56 PM
I can't believe this is happening.

Pop the bottles for real this time fellas.

TOAST!

      
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