Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Can't link to the actual story, but I stole the meat of it:
"Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie Sign Acquisition Agreement
Dublin, Ireland (September 30, 2011) Laurent Tapie, Managing Director of ‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ announced today that the group has signed an exclusive agreement with the Board of Directors of Full Tilt Poker to acquire the company and all of its associated assets.
This agreement, which includes the repayment of Full Tilt Poker’s world-wide players in full, is subject to several conditions; the first of which is a favorable resolution with the United States Department of Justice. Discussions with the United States Department of Justice will begin immediately.
‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ has over 30 years of experience in the salvation of financially distressed businesses, with over 40 companies acquired and managed to profitability, the most well-known being the sport equipment giant, Adidas.""
------------ less good news is that Tapie actually did prison time for corruption:
Yep, I've also read it and I don't mind who is he, what he wants to do with FT or if he is honest or is a criminal. I only want my money back. The millisecond after they reopen I will withdraw all my money.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by DaMessiah666: Yep, I've also read it and I don't mind who is he, what he wants to do with FT or if he is honest or is a criminal. I only want my money back. The millisecond after they reopen I will withdraw all my money.
Haha you and the entire internet.. Surely any withdrawals would have to be phased/limited. Regardless of peoples intent to continue playing on FTP or not if it re-opened, I think basically everyone with a roll >$1K or so is going to want an insta-cashout to begin with and I doubt they could handle that straight away. My guess is they'll cap everyone at $5k / Month or something until they're turning a proper profit again.
Joined: Oct '10
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 63 (M)
Posts: 442
This agreement, which includes the repayment of ’s world-wide players in full, is subject to several conditions; the first of which is a favorable resolution with the United States Department of Justice
Presumably this would mean getting the $330 million back that the DoJ seized?
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
"less good news is that Tapie actually did prison time for corruption"
Interesting read, seams like someone was after him bad, "convicted without proof"..."the only man in french soccer corruption cases ever sentenced", not a pay off there!
The rest is better, made bankrupt so he could not run for elections, screwed over by his own bank! Saved over 40 bankrupt companys , I think this guy knows what he is doing and don't think he is ready to watch it crumble.
Joined: Aug '10
Location: Germany
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 2219
I think the new investor offers massive promotions and payout restrictions in the first time. And you will see, with big bonusses there are 100.000 players back in a few time...
I've said it before (not sure if on BRM, but probably here), that they need to settle an agreement with DOJ - and even after doing that it will be so hard to get a new license... But I think they'll do it and FTP sooner or later (probably later) will be back, but... will it be the same FTP? I think the traffic will go down and I mean DOOOOOOOOWN. There are players that love and miss FTP, so I'm sure there will be a lot of players that will play on FTP no matter what, but they will lose a lot of customers (well, they already lost) and I'm afraid that FTP will need to make some dirty moves again to get back on track (and I mean something like allowing bots to play, which will generate more rake etc. etc.).
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
new owners have got a good rep at resurrecting business but this one gonna be a big challenge as they will have to inject a lot of cash in the beginning to pay players as most of them gonna request cashout first thing. and then there's still the issue with DOJ
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Took the time to read some info on the Frenchie guy. Besides the jail time he has done amazing things. He has done the same with Adidas also which is a brand worldly known almost by anyone. So he must be seeing a good profit there
Joined: Aug '10
Location: Germany
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 2219
I have no problem when a new investor said: "no withdraws for three month". But they must give us a great bonus offer. Better than the money is gone for all times...
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
I was reading this and it looked so fine til i read the last sentence, and i realized that this business is a bit difficult to happen. I would believe it could happen if it was in Portugal, but i dont know if USA will let thisgo through til the end. One thing everyone can be more or less distressed: payments will come for the users, this looks almost sure.
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
I never understand all these discussions about "trusting" FT again or not.
It is VERY clear that fraud was committed by management. If NEW management takes over, like Bernard Tapie, what is the difference between FT and PS or Party or ANY other site? NONE of them are transparent enough for us to know if our money is safe. NONE.
So a new investor is less likely to jump right back in and create a corrupt system of his own with all the press coverage since April. In fact, it should be "safer" than all the other Poker sites.
Enough said.
Still, very happy that a possible investor has been found. Much will depend on the paybacks from the DOJ, which have 330 m illion ready to pay players back apparently. Tapie is waiting for help from them on the refunds to players. January looks promissing, but it might be a few months later as well.
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
Posted by IslandJack: Still, very happy that a possible investor has been found. Much will depend on the paybacks from the DOJ, which have 330 m illion ready to pay players back apparently. Tapie is waiting for help from them on the refunds to players. January looks promissing, but it might be a few months later as well.
apparently Fulltilt will have to pay a bigger amount than 330 mil to DOJ as penalties for all the shady stuff they have done. and tapie co are interested in only small stake (around 5-10%) of fulltilt. i guess the older owners will still be owning a big part of fulltilt even if they manage to find more investors.
