{"id":2041,"date":"2016-10-14T10:48:13","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T15:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onlinepokeramerica.com\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2019-07-08T14:32:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T14:32:55","slug":"shareholders-criticism-leads-uncertainty-amaya-william-hill-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onlinepokeramerica.com\/news\/shareholders-criticism-leads-uncertainty-amaya-william-hill-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Shareholder’s Criticism Leads to Uncertainty About Amaya and William Hill Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
Industry insiders and analysts have been speculating as to what it could mean for the iGaming industry, since the news of a possible deal between William Hill and Amaya<\/a> broke on October 9.<\/p>\n In the poker industry of today, a newly merger company would certainly become a power player, especially with Amaya owning the largest poker site in the world and William Hill being the biggest bookmaker in Europe.<\/p>\n By No Means a Done Deal<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s by no means a done deal but a merger could certainly be a positive thing for the online poker players. Some media outlets have assumed that things were looking very positive, but Bloomberg’s analysts now contradicts these messages.<\/p>\n Bloomberg speculated that the risk for both parties would be too great, while citing PokerStars’ legal issues in Kentucky regarding player losses post -UIGEA and a potential debt of more than 3.4X EBITDA. According to Parvus Asset Management, the merger would “destroy shareholder value” and have “limited strategic value”.<\/p>\n “Ralph Topping, a former chief executive of William Hill, said he fully supported the assessment by Parvus and went so far as to tell the Financial Times that he is \u201cworried\u201d about the future of William Hill.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although it doesn’t have the power to block the deal, criticism coming from a former chief executive might be cause for concern. Unless it can be persuaded that there is an upside to a merger, Parvus could block any further negotiations as it own 14.3 percent of William Hill.<\/p>\nNeed of a Deal for William Hill<\/h3>\n