Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
To all Dublin Staff,
By now you probably have heard that I have returned to the US to deal with civil and criminal case that are pending against me in New York. We have all worked hard over the last 15 months to preserve Full Tilt’s assets and potential in order to provide for the repayment of all players, and that continues to be our top priority. It is as important as ever that we all do everything possible to make that happen and, hopefully our deal with Poker Stars will very soon make our goal a reality. My return to the US is part of this process.
I am particularly grateful to all of you here in Dublin for your hard work, patience and understanding during this difficult time. I believe that your hard work and dedication should not go unrecognized, and we have made arrangements for Poker Stars to guarantee all July salaries. You should therefore have no concern about coming to work during this period. After that, we expect that your employment contracts will be assumed by the buyer of the company’s assets.
For those that need to reach me, I expect to continue to be available by email and phone starting late Monday, New York time.
In the meantime, please refer any operational questions to **REDACTED**, and any HR questions to **REDACTED**.
Thank you all again.
Kind regards,
Raymond J Bitar
Hopefully the bold bit is a good sign, and not BS, or should I say RB.
At last! I hope this could be useful to take my money back!! Come back to US and pay us, bastard! If somebody steals five bucks you go to the prison but if somebody steals $15M he can be retired on holidays in Ireland. What a shame!
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Posted by IslandJack: What worries me is this:
Pokerstars will pay salaries, and.... "After that, we expect that your employment contracts will be assumed by the buyer of the company�s assets."
What the hell does that mean? What buyer?
Well Poker Stars of course is the buyer. Who else would it be?
What concerns me is the use of the word "assests". To me this implies they are buying "the assests" ie: the software. I'm sure it's pretty much unanimously understood that if PS were to buy FT and NOT pay players back, it'd be a VERY poor move that would cost them a lot of bad press.
However, business IS business, and PS may just say f**k the players, and buyout the software since they know it's better than theirs.
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
Posted by retribution:
Posted by IslandJack: What worries me is this:
Pokerstars will pay salaries, and.... "After that, we expect that your employment contracts will be assumed by the buyer of the company�s assets."
What the hell does that mean? What buyer?
Well Poker Stars of course is the buyer. Who else would it be?
What concerns me is the use of the word "assests". To me this implies they are buying "the assests" ie: the software. I'm sure it's pretty much unanimously understood that if PS were to buy FT and NOT pay players back, it'd be a VERY poor move that would cost them a lot of bad press.
However, business IS business, and PS may just say f**k the players, and buyout the software since they know it's better than theirs.
I'm not just posting that because I'm stupid Retribution. Read those sentences again.
PS will pay the salaries and then....WE EXPECT.....the buyer will assume the employment contracts.
This is very ambiguous to say the least. There might be another as yet unnamed buyer who has entered the game. No ? Otherwise it is very badly worded IMO.
Joined: Feb '10
Location: Portugal
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 998
Why the hell would PS be interested top buy a company that is known to scame players and to be fraudulent??? Just doesnt make any sense at all, or somebody is willing to wash money. Knowing that PS is ganing around 8 millions per day is rake they can buy anything they want.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Posted by kinogomes: Why the hell would PS be interested top buy a company that is known to scame players and to be fraudulent??? Just doesnt make any sense at all, or somebody is willing to wash money. Knowing that PS is ganing around 8 millions per day is rake they can buy anything they want.
Because with their management, they can turn it around. People are going to have a LOT more trust in FT now that PS is buying it. PS has already shown they can be trusted, and since they have the #1 site around, it makes sense for them to buy it. They will now hold #1 and #2 spots in the market, and will be virtually untouchable.
I think it's not only a smart business move, but it will increase their reputation die. Sure they COULD just let FT die, but there's money to be made in the long run by reviving it, and the credibility they gain is priceless.
This is good news for FT....Looking forward for the revival of FT soon....I miss the games there...lol...so aggressive and the competition is really good....
Posted by kinogomes: Why the hell would PS be interested top buy a company that is known to scame players and to be fraudulent??? Just doesnt make any sense at all, or somebody is willing to wash money. Knowing that PS is ganing around 8 millions per day is rake they can buy anything they want.
I have already posted my opinion in another thread but I will repost it here:
[/QUOTE] The is pretty obvious to me. PS don't really need FT and doesn't wish to buy it. Especially not for 750 mln $. Their players' base overlaps hugely. American market is not reachable via FT as well. They don't really need the FT software as their own client is equally good. So, there is no reason for PS to buy FT except one.
This purchase is a camouflaged attempt to make a deal with the Department of Justice so that they close the case against PS owners and executives (Isai Scheinberg, Paul Tate). This deal is very convenient for DOJ. This is why they weren't so fast in striking a deal with Tapie Group. Let me remind, that GBT was negotiating that players should be paid back also with the money confiscated by DOJ. Of course, DOJ would prefer to keep those funds and let PS pay the players back. And PS will do that to get their own people off the hook of DOJ. [/QUOTE]
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
Raymond J Bitar is confirming that the deal with Pokerstars is still moving, although there weren’t any more news about this for more than a month now (or maybe longer). About the jobs, IslandJack, it will probably have to be the buyer of all the business who will decide what to do with those employers, it can decide to fire all and forming a new company, or it can make a deal with almost all of those who want to keep their activity and regroup them in another team.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Poker stars dont care about anything besides their own pockets. Whatever they do, if the decide to do anything with FT, will have as a result them pocketing more money. They already own the market.
