Another Merger in the Making?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 3:21 AMWritten by Daniel OAs reported earlier today, Playtech's Teddy Sagi has made an
offer to
purchase 888 Holding plc from the Shaked family. 888, a company that was worth a
billion dollars five years ago, might now be sold for a reported ₤200 million.
Ladbrokes has already made an offer that was supposedly
rejected by 888 a month ago. If the merger/acquisition is completed this time
around, it will only add to earlier mega-mergers of the kind, namely Playtech
joining hands with William Hill and the soon-to-take-place merger between
PartyGaming and bwin.
It looks to me like the online gambling business is going
through a big change. We might soon wake up and see a handful of giant
companies and a bunch of smaller ones. It will serve as testimony of our
strength, as an industry, as affiliates, if we manage to maintain enough companies
- not necessarily big companies as much as medium size, independent and
financially safe companies, to fill the void and allow a number avenues for
doing business and leveling the field.
